


"Spider-Man?!"

by If_Its_Gay_I_Probably_Ship_It



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Description of Injuries, F/M, Gen, Irondad, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, LGBTQ Character, Mental Health Issues, Nightmares, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, PTSD, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem Issues, Survivor Guilt, injuries, sensory issues, snap aftermath, spiderson, waking up somewhere strange
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2019-11-29 13:11:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 35,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18223598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/If_Its_Gay_I_Probably_Ship_It/pseuds/If_Its_Gay_I_Probably_Ship_It
Summary: Peter wakes up in a strange place and the only thing he knows is, it's cold and he's in pain.!!!NOT ENDGAME COMPLIANT!!!Rated T for description of injuriesTags might change in the futureGIVE IT A TRY!!!!  (I'm already sorry for chapter 7 though)





	1. waking up in strange places

**Author's Note:**

> Let's see how this goes. The story's pretty neat at least the friends I gave it to proof read said that. Hope you like it. 
> 
> Hope you have a great day. And if not that's fine too. You are still valid. xx
> 
> Disclaimer: English is not my first language and all mistakes are mine. Non of these characters belong to me. They are all property of Marvel

When Peter woke up he felt as if his brain tried to punch its way out of his skull. It was cold on the hard concrete floor he was laying on and he flinched when he tried to sit up. Pain spiked through his left shoulder and ribs. It was dark in the room and Peter couldn't see anything. 

“Karen?”, he croaked out when he held his head. Peter looked around but it was dark and couldn't see much. The echo of his voice told him he was in some kind of big room though.

He got no answer. Peter knew he's still wearing his suit but there were tears and broken up pieces everywhere in it. Karen and possibly all other function was missing completely from the suit. 

He shivered when cold air hit his bare skin. He was surprised to find a slight gush of wind coming from somewhere in the room. And where there's wind, there has to be a way out of here. Peter's head still tumbled but he knew he had to get out of here and possibly get medical attention. 

He got up from the floor instantly regretting it because he felt his left leg giving away almost immediately. Peter yelped out in pain. “Ah!”, his head spun even worse from the pain in his leg and he could barely sit up.

Heart hammering against his rib cage, Peter took a few deep breaths trying to regain some control over himself over the pain. 

“Okay... You have to think Peter... Don't panic...”, he tried to keep himself calm while reaching for his ankle to see what was wrong with it. It was definitely swollen and he had to bite down on his tongue to not cry out in pain again. It didn't feel loose though so he concluded it wasn't broken, at least not anymore. He was just overly sensitive to pain right know. 

“Where am I now?”, he started to speak to himself again. It was rather calming to speak every thought coming from his brain, out loud. “I have to get back to May and Ned and MJ.”, he tried to distract himself from his almost unbearable situation. “I hope Mr. Stark made it back home safely.”, where was this coming from? Why would Mr. Stark not be safe?

And suddenly everything happening the last weeks came bursting back into his mind. 

“I died.”, he whispered in disbelieve.

He was quite for some minutes trying to process what happened. And it started to draw to him that he might not even be on Earth but in space or on some unknown planet. 

“I have to get out of here.”, he stated in a shaky breath. 

He knew if he started to overthink everything right now he wouldn't get out of here soon. So he just did what first came into his mind and got up. And yes his leg hurt but it wasn't as bad as at the first try. He took a few tentative steps forward and realized he could walk. Well rather limp than walk but he could get around. 

Then he tried his webshooters but they didn't work. “Shit, c'mon, please.”, he hit the devices around his wrists carefully and tried again. “Come on, come on!”, he hit them harder, his breath starting to labor. But again he was unsuccessful. “WORK DAMMIT!!!!”, he screamed in frustration. He was so angry that he broke the webshooters with his bare hands. 

Without his suit and shooters he wasn't Spider-Man. He was just a stupid kid that didn't know how to get out of the situation on his own. How's he going to make anything happen now? Was Thanos defeated by now? Was he even actually alive? Maybe he was dead... What would it change now anyway. He just hoped his friends and May didn't die like he did. It was a terrifying experience and Peter remembered feeling it in every fiber of his body. How the fear grabbed him trying to swallow him whole. He remembers clinging to Mr. Stark because he always knew what to do. He always saved him and made it better. But not this time. This time he couldn't do anything but watch Peter turn into ashes. 

Peter's breath started to quicken by the thoughts of his death and the desperation in Mr. Stark's eyes trying to do something but not being able to. His heartbeat became faster too and Peter could feel himself falling into a panic attack. 

No, no, no, this can't be happening. I can't have a panic attack. Not know. The world isn't saved and Mr. Stark is alone on Titan. “Pull yourself... together... Spider-Man.”, Peter panted out and closed his eyes. Trying to regain a normal heartbeat and breathing pattern.

He took shaky, deep breathes and after what felt hours the panic started to dissipate into nothing but a slightly wobbly feeling in his brain and legs.

The next try of getting up actually worked for longer than a few seconds and Peter started to wobble around the room he was in. The walls were made of metal contrary to the concrete floor he was on before. The room seemed rather big though more like a warehouse if he was honest. He couldn't hear anything from the outside though. Maybe he was far out in the desert at the end of the world.

He felt his way along the metal walls until he felt an unevenness like a slit from top to bottom through the wall. Peter smiled a little. Is it what he thought he was? Hopefully.

He kept walking but not even 7 ft further he found what he was hoping for. 

A lock.

“Yes.”, he exclaimed and bumping his fist in the air. “Ugh.”, regretting it almost immediately though because almost every part of his body hurt by the movement.

Wish I had a light, he thought and fumbled a little to find out what kind of lock he had in front of himself. He felt two handles held together by a chain with a fat block lock. How should he get though that? He didn't have a bull cutter and he definitely can't rip it apart, not with his damaged body.

He felt along the chain two or three times until he realized something. The chain was closed around the left handle but only wrapped around the right one without it being locked. 

Could he actually have this much luck?

He tried to open the heavy metal doors and they actually opened. He had to use a lot of energy for it and was also in a lot of pain but they opened.

Out in the complete dark he had to take a few deep breath to regain his composure. “That felt like 400,000 pounds.”, he panted out and looked accusingly at the heavy doors.

Peter felt a smile creeping up his face. He made it out. Alone. In the dark. Injured and without any help of his suit. Again it showed him he didn't need the suit to accomplish something. Okay, lets be honest for a second and acknowledge how much luck he had for the warehouse not being actually closed. 

Still, he thought and started to look around. Ahead of him it was absolutely dark without any light whatsoever.

“Yeah, definitely not going there.”, he looked up at the sky. He could see the moon and a load of stars dancing around looking happy and unbothered. “I was there.”, he whispered to himself feeling tears springing his eyes. He really hoped the others made it out alive from there.

On his right Peter could see some lights though even if they were a bit further away. Also a street. Seems promising, he thought and starts to walk there. 

He looks a bit ridicules in his somewhat teared red and blue metal looking suit walking down an unknown deserted street. His face mask was completely unharmed though. Ironic actually considering how he doesn't feel like Spider-Man at all right now. 

As he limped his way closer to the lights he felt his head to be fully empty. He couldn't hold his thoughts for very long and if he got a clear one it was overpowered by negativity. He'd rather not think at all then.

With a pounding head and left body side he arrived at the first streetlamp. Where ever he was seemed like the outskirts of a big city or a tiny village somewhere out in the nothingness. 

It wasn't more than the street he was on and maybe 60 houses beaded on either side of it. When Peter walked down the street he quickly found there was basically no light in any house. 

Coursing a little under his breath he felt his ribs stinging even worse and he had to take a halt holding his breath and the offending bones for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes again and kept on walking.

He almost gave up hope to find someone awake when he saw lights in the second house on the left at the end of the road. “Yes.”, he breathed out and dragged himself the last few meters. 

The house was not too big on it's basis but had two stories. Upstairs was dark so Peter felt lucky and walked to the front door on the left side of the house. He crossed a window on the way and saw the TV running and someone walking around in he living room/open kitchen. Peter rung the bell.

It was a door with a little milk glassed window and he saw lights being flipped on in the hallway and someone coming closer to the door. Saying something he couldn't identify. 

“Wer zur Hölle klingelt so spät noch?”, sounded female and pissed. 

The door opened and revealed a teenager in Peter's age with hair a little shorter than his and blonde wearing an oversized black hoody and Iron Man boxers as pajamas. “Spider-Man!?”, they stated in a slight accent looking completely dumbfounded.


	2. injuries and calls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is much longer than I thought. Also TRIGGER WARNING for describtions of injuries. 
> 
> Have fun! I hope you have an amaing day! xx

After a minute of silence and gaping Peter cleared his throat. “Yes, ehm... well, can I – could I maybe come in?”, because his body is killing him right now and the situation seems a bit odd.

“Hm?”, the teenager snapped out of their thoughts. “Oh, right. Sure, of course. Come in.”, they made space at the door and waved Peter inside. 

Once inside they went to the kitchen and the stranger pointed at a chair for Peter to sit down on and reached to pour him a glass of water. “Here.”, Peter instantly drowned it. He hasn't even realized how thirsty he was. How long was it since the last time he drank something?

“I'm Lina”, the girl said and held out her hand to the hero.

“Peter”, he said without thinking and shook her hand. 

She froze. “What?”

She looked him up and down taking in his appearance. Height and looks match even if the suit has been torn apart. And his voice sounded like Spider-Man's too. It must be the real him, right?

Peter let his head hang when he processed what he just said. _Shit..._ , he thought hoping the situation will go as well as it could giving the current circumstances. “Okay, yes. You can't tell anyone about this though, okay?”, he sounded serious and seriously questioned his intelligence in this moment. On the other hand he just came back from the literal dead so this shouldn't be all that terrifying, right?

The girl nodded, not saying anything. He took off his mask. The girl's breath hitched. But not because Spider-Man just revealed is face but because his face looked as if it was used as a punching bag. His lip was split and swollen, his right eye blue and his left cheek cracked and bleeding as well. 

“Come with me.”, she said abruptly and started walking down the hallway to another room. “Sit.”, she gestured to the bathtub in the bathroom they were in right now. The daylight lamp was so bright it hurt Peter's eyes and head. He squinted his eyes and Lina switched lamps to a one with dimmer, softer light.

She took a cloth and wetted it with water giving it to him. “For your face.”, her voice was soft and she looked a little frightened. “I'm getting you some clothes and a towel. You feel like eating?”, she asked him but the color leaving Peter's face was enough for her to dismiss the idea. “I'll be right back.”, Lina said and left. 

Peter looked at himself in the mirror and he squeaked a little at the reflection he saw. He understood why Lina reacted the way she did in the kitchen. He started to pad away the blood from his cheek and lip. 

“I hope size S fits you.”, she held up a pile of clothing and put it on the toilet seat. Then she went over to a cabinet and revealed a ton of towels. “Which color? We got everything including rainbow and various striped varieties.”, Lina loved colorful towels. She didn't know why, it was just an appeasement of hers.

“Uhm....”, Peter looked up to the girl. “Green?”, he suggested.

Lina smiled at his uncertainty and hung a lime green towel over the shower. “Are you in any pain? I saw you limping and your suit is pretty torn. You also squinted at the light and bleed on the back of your head. You maybe have a concussion.”, she rambled away telling him about some of the stuff she observed.

He took a little to catch up. “Um, yes. My left shoulder hurts and my ankle is pretty swollen. I might have cracked a few ribs and I thought I might have a concussion too. I'm a little nauseous to be honest and my head hurts pretty badly.”, he answered confirming the girl's suspicions. 

She opened a cupboard and gave him a tube. “It's a cooling cream. Put it only where something is swollen.”, she took another tube. “This is an anti inflammatory and you can put basically everywhere else where it hurts. But nothing on open wounds.”, she handed it over and left the bathroom.

Peter was a bit dumbfounded. What did just happen? He knows wherever he is, it's not America. Lina seemed just as surprised as him but she's still welcoming and helpful. Peter also got the feeling he heard her accent before but couldn't really place it. It might be the concussion though.

He showered and yelped when the water hit his wounds but Peter grit his teeth together and went through. He felt better after he cleaned himself. When he dried off his body he was as careful as possible to not irritate his wounds, which was harder than it sounded.

Then he looked at the clothing Lina gave him and chuckled when he found Spider-Man pajama pants for him to wear together with a black shirt and a red zip-up. The last he put on where navy, fuzzy socks. 

While Peter showered Lina started to realize what just happened here. “Spider-Man ist gerade in meiner Dusche. (Spider-Man is in my shower right now.)”, she quietly says to herself not quite believing it herself. “Was zur Hölle. (What the hell.)”, she's back in the kitchen filling the kettle with water and starting to heat it up.

Her thoughts went on mostly how absolutely awesome this whole situation actually is but also not awesome since she doesn't know Peter and apparently he went through something awful. Lina went back to the tasks she made for herself while she rummaged around in the bathroom earlier.

The already big, L-shaped couch got pulled out and new sheets with some extra blankets on the side. Next where meds. She got some ibuprofen and paracetamol for Peter's pain as well as eventual fever and something for his nausea. She put several alarms with one hour intervals. Lina got some bandages and elastic tape from the med cupboard from her room and checked the freezer for cool packs. She counted seven which should, hopefully, be enough. (AN: I actually counted the amount of cool packs I have at home because I didn't know how many one usually has at home and went with that number.)

The tea was brewed and Lina made black tea for herself and herbal for Peter. Just when she put the cups on the coffee table next to the couch, Peter came in the room in her Spider-Man pants. 

A big smile stretched over Lina's face and Peter looked rather unimpressed. “I had to. I'm not even sorry.”, she laughed. 

The boy went to the couch and sat down pouting slightly. Lina handed him the tea. “Here, for your nausea. It's herbal.”, she clarified.

“Thanks.”, he took a sip. Lina hold up two little packages. 

“Ibuprofen or paracetamol? I'm allergic to ibu that's why I have both. If you feel more sick I got tablets fore that too. Also I'm pretty sure you have a concussion so I'm gonna wake you every hour during the night so that I know your brain isn't swelling. That's why we're staying in he living room. I had to run through the whole hallway if you'd sleep in the guest room. And I know we don't know each other but whatever I won't let you out of my eye as long as you haven't been checked by a doctor. Also the guest room is getting a new layer of paint and all the furniture is in the middle of the room.”, Lina rambled out all the information. “We're going to the hospital later today by the way. I'm sorry but you look terrible.”,she grimaced a little. “I'm gonna stay in my armchair.”, she gestured at said piece of furniture behind her. 

“But you have to sleep too. I can't hold you up all night.”, Peter tried but knew he couldn't protest against the girl. Not successfully at least. This is also the first time Peter got a real look at the girl. She was smaller than Peter and had an, at the moment disheveled, blonde undercut with blue highlights.

“I slept the whole day.”, she waved off his concerns. “Why do you think I was awake at three in the morning?”, she gestured at the clock on the wall behind her. It said 3.27am. 

A wave of tiredness hit Peter when he saw the clock but his head still hurt which reminded him of Lina's original question. “Can I have the ibuprofen please?”, he asked her and Lina threw it in his hands and got a glass of water for him. “Thank you for letting me stay.”, he murmured after swallowing the pill.

“Of course I'll let you stay. You don't have to thank me. But you're welcome. It'll be better in 15 minutes tops. What do your ribs look like?”, she asked him hoping it wasn't to bad because cracked ribs can be dangerous.

“All blue and painful.”, he answered wincing a little when he shred off the zip-up and pulled up his shirt.

“Ach du scheiße. (Oh, shit.)”, Lina clapped a hand over her mouth. “I'm definitely gonna bandage this. It looks bad. I'm getting a few ice packs.”, she took all seven at once. “Can I pet you down? I have a certificate as a youth paramedic.”, she explained because it's strange to just ask to pet down a stranger.

“If you can make it better, than please do.”, he took off his shirt with some difficulty.

Lina started to feel around the discoloration first. “Tell me when the pain isn't just superficial anymore okay?”, Peter nodded.

She felt Peter wince from time to time. When she went over his 7th and 8th rib he flinched. “Au, au, au.”, he cried out.

“Okay, okay, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry.”, she took away her hands. “I'm gonna check there again, yes? Try to hold still, please. I don't wanna hurt you more than you already do.”, she tried to reassure him. 

Peter nodded and steeled himself for the coming pain. Lina felt Peter's ribs swollen and also some light cracks. “They're not broken, I think”, Lina told him absentmindedly concentrating on her work. _Not anymore_ , Peter thought. “No other cracks though, luckily.”, she told him and reached for the elastic tape. “It might be a bit tight because it has to keep your ribs in place. But it's loose enough for easy breathing. Just so you're not surprised.”, she starts to wrap up part of his upper body. “If breathing should hurt at any point or if there's stabbing pain in your torso you immediately have to tell me, okay? In that case your lung might be collapsed and we have to get an ambulance asap.”, she explained to him. 

The girl knew what she was talking about and Peter had to swallow hard because of her possible prognoses of a collapsed lung. Knowing he still had a healing factor was somewhat relieving but it was extremely limited at the moment. He just barely survived, could he even call it 'survived' since he technically died, he worst ordeal in the universe. He will not die now just because he hit the ground a little too hard. 

When the wrapping was done she reached for the landline on the coffeetable. “I'm sure you'd like to call someone. You can't be much older than me.”, Aunt May?! He didn't even think about anybody else until now. Oh god, what if May died too and what if she didn't come back? No time to think about bad scenarios right now though, so Peter swallowed the thought.

Peter smiled gratefully even though it looked strained. “Thank you Lina. It's oversea though. The call is gonna be expensive. I'll pay you ba...”, but Lina cut him off.

“Nonsense. My parents do these calls all the time. Believe me it's not a problem and don't you start with paying. It's just phone calls.”, she waved him off and urged him to “make the call please.”

Lina sat down in her armchair and took her laptop while Peter dialed. It rung and rung and rung until. _“Hello? Peter?”_ , a smile instantly caught on his face.

“Yes, it's me May. I'm – I'm okay.”, he sounded emotional. 

Lina didn't wanna intrude so she started to type away on her school work. 

_“Peter? Oh my god, I'm so relieved. Are you sure your okay? Where are you? Are you hurt?”_ , May sounded relieved but also scared and absolutely terrified.

“I have some scratches but otherwise I'm fine.”, he lied and Lina send him an _are-you-kidding-me_ look. “And I am in...”, he looked over to the girl. “Lina where am I?”, because he just realized he didn't know.

“Germany. An hour away from Berlin.”, she told him nonchalant.

“What?!”, he screeched. He knew he wasn't in the US but he didn't think he was this far away. “I'm in Germany?”, he asked Lina in complete disbelieve.

 _“You're in Germany? How did you get there?”_ , May sounded just as surprised as her nephew. 

'Keep talking', Lina mouthed gesturing to the phone in Peter's hand.

“Right.”, he nodded at the girl. “Yes May. Apparently I'm in Germany. A bit outside Berlin. But I don't really know how I came here. I woke up outside in a warehouse in the middle of the night. I found a bed and a hot shower.”, Peter tries to calm Aunt May down a little bit.

 _“Okay,”_ , May breathed in relieve. _“That's good – that's very good. I'm just so glad you're okay Peter. When Tony called and told me he wasn't sure where you were, I almost got a heart attack. I can't loose you too Peter.”_ , the raw emotion in her voice made Peter tear up which, he was sure, May was doing too.

But wait what? “Mr. Stark is on earth? He made it back from Titan?”, Peter didn't know why but he almost assumed Mr. Stark died somewhere in space. “Are you okay too May? Did you...”, he couldn't finish the sentence because he just couldn't imagine May dead. It's too much for his body right now and he shuddered.

 _“No, I didn't. I'm fine, Peter. I stayed home the whole time however unbearable it was. The news were shattering out new information every few seconds and I saw you getting sucked into this spaceship more than once.”_ , Peter could tell she was crying and he had tears running over his face too.

 _“Peter, when are you coming home?”_ , that was the question. May wanted him home so desperately and Peter was just equally desperate to get back to his aunt. He just wanted to hug her and never let her go.

But Peter was injured and had to get to a hospital since his healing factor wasn't working all that well, before he could go on a plane. How will he explain the injuries to May? He lied to her. But Peter was sure May knew that already. How would he get back in the first place? He had neither money nor papers on him. Or clothing, for that matter. He had literally nothing except for his broken suit. THE SUIT?! What will Mr. Stark say when he sees it? It was completely damaged. Would he make Peter a new one? The nano bots are pretty cool. Maybe he was allowed to tinker around with them a little in Mr. Stark's lab. That would be awesome.

Peter was completely lost in his thoughts and didn't even realize he stopped talking to May or that Lina took the phone from his hand.

“Hello? I'm sorry, this is Lina. Peter's sleeping at mine for now. He pretty out of it. It also looks like he'll fall asleep any minute now to be honest.”, Lina almost smirked but thought better off it.

 _“Thank you so much for doing this. I'm May by the way, his aunt. I don't know how to thank you enough for letting him stay.”_ , she sounded genuinely thankful and had such a sympathetic and caring voice. It was kind of calming.

“It's fine, really. I'm glad I can help. And to be honest, it's pretty cool to have Spider-Man sleeping on your couch.”, Lina could hear May chuckle and she was relieved she could take some of the obvious tension. “I'm afraid the suit is not really in for duty anymore.”, she looked over at Peter and saw him sleeping on top of his blanket. “Peter's asleep now so I'm gonna tell you something he didn't want you to tell but I think you need to know...”, Lina was cut off by May though.

 _“How bad are his injuries actually? He didn't sound good.”_ , of course she knew he lied. Mothers (or aunts) always knew.

“I think he got a concussion and some cracks here and there but since it's almost 4am over here, I couldn't get him to the hospital. He's too exhausted for that. I'll bring him to the hospital later though.”, Lina explained calmingly to the concerned woman on the other end of the phone.

She heard May breathing out somewhat relieved. _“Thank you for looking after him. And thank you for the reassurance. I'm really glad he seemed to have picked the right house.”_ , May chuckled wetly. Lina smiled even though the woman couldn't see it. _“You should go to bed now too. It's late and I have to make some calls now.”_ , May told Lina in a stoic, motherly voice and she had to chuckle.

“I will. Thank you May. And good night. He'll call tomorrow and if you wanna talk to him, just call this number back. It's connected to my cell so it won't cost as much for both of us.”, she told May. She seemed like the type of person who likes to know what's going on with their loved ones.

 _“Thank you. Good night Lina.”_ , she could hear a smile on the woman's lips.

“Night.”, and Lina hung up the phone.

She looked at Peter and carefully put ice packs all around his left side and his head wound (all packs are covered with dishtowels of course). Then she wrestled the blanket over the boy's body so he wouldn't be cold. He didn't even stir at her actions and she knew he must be extremely exhausted. Taking her phone she started the first alarm before turning off all the lights in the room and starting Netflix to start her 8th rewatch of _Brooklyn Nine Nine_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congratulations! You reached the end of this chapter just to read this utterly useless message since i have nothing to say. 
> 
> This felt oddly similar to the homecoming post credit scene :D well whatever
> 
> Put your thoughts in the comments give me kudos so i feel better about myself because i'm not feeling all that great.  
> PS: the canadian screen awards are about to start so i hope the formatting wasn't all that terrible xx


	3. eggs, music and sunglasses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> morning routine-ish i guess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have my first final tomorrow which means my editing might not be amazing. I didn't have much time to read over the whole chapter again. I'm really sorry for any missing words or letters. Hope you still like it!!!
> 
> Have a great day!!! xx

Just when the fourth episode started, the first alarm on Lina's phone went off. She quickly silenced the theme of _Criminal Minds_ and went over to the couch. 

“Peter”, she whispered. “Peter.”, she shook his shoulder. Slowly Peter opened his eyes looking somewhat blearily at the girl in front of him. 

“Hm?”, it sounded as if he asked her to repeat whatever Lina just said because he couldn't understand it. 

He was about to sit up when Lina caught his shoulder. “No, no, no. Stay down.”, she a bit more than whispered. “Are you in any pain?”, Peter's face was a bit screwed up. 

He made a 50-50 movement with his hand. “Is it dull?”, a nod. “Head?”, a nod. “Ribs?”, a nod. “Ankle?”, this time he shook his head no. “Okay, good. Any stabbing pain?”, luckily he shook his head no again. “Fantastic.”, Lina commented more to herself than anyone else. 

“Can you say something so I know your brain isn't molding?”, it was kind of a cruel joke but Peter even gave her a weak and very tired smile. 

“It's not... molding.”, he mumbled clear enough for Lina to understand. 

“You did great”, Lina chuckled. “Go back to sleep.”, and he did, pretty much instantly. 

She quickly took the ice packs away because they were too cold even though they were wrapped in micro fiber towels. 

An hour later Lina had to wake Peter again. He said something and informed her about his pain. She put the ice packs back on again for the next hour. The hour after, she put them back into the freezer and so on and so on until 8am. It was the last time the alarm went off. It was strange for Lina to see Peter's black eye healing more and more over the hours. He sill looked as if he was dragged through the mud though. 

Lina started breakfast and decided for toast and some eggs. It was pretty plain but she hated breakfast and didn't know how much Peter could stomach at the moment if he was hungry at all. Any way he had to eat something especially if needed more medication. It was around 8.30am when Lina was ready with their food and wanted to get Peter when she saw him already sitting up on the couch looking rather tired and confused. 

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”, she asked when he came over to the kitchen table. 

“A little too much interruption but the couch is very comfy.”, he sounded surprised about his answer. 

“I know. Usually sofas are so uncomfortable. But I fall asleep on them so often that I needed the perfect one. It's not the prettiest but who cares when it's that comfy.”, she put plates on the table with the eggs and toast. “You feel like eating?” 

“Yeah, I think I can eat something.”, he reached for a toast and put some eggs on his plate. 

He felt weird. Usually Peter was hungry all the time and needed the energy for his healing factor. The pain made him queasy which meant he needed pain meds but for pain meds he needs to eat. But then again he was nauseous and ...Ugh... The spiraling thoughts made his head drum again. It's been a long time since he felt as terrible as he did at the moment. 

Lina interrupted his thoughts. “Tea or water? You're not getting coffee however much you might beg me.”, she told him straightforward. 

“I don't even like coffee. I'd take a tea please.”, and with these words he had a Diddle cup with steaming tea in front of him. The cup was strangely colorful and looked as if it was a bit older. Peter observed it carefully. “What's _Diddle_?” 

“The only girly thing I've ever liked.”, Lina chuckled and sat down in her seat with a _Sheepworld_ cup. “It was a brand when I was little. They mainly made stationery and note papers for trading. But they also made little cards, stuffed animals, cups and little paper bags. I have different games and CD's of it too.”, she explained. “That stuff was the shit when I was like 10 or something.”, she smiled fondly at the memories. “Those were great times. I still have all my _Diddle_ stuff.”, she added and took a bite of her toast. 

“Sounds like all the Iron Man merch my aunt and uncle had to buy me. I had everything from action figures to bed sheets to a helmet. He even saved me once at the Stark Expo.”, both had great memories of their childhood. “I wish I was still that little.”, Peter interrupted their thoughts. 

“Me too...Everything was so easy. The hardest thing to decide for was what shirt to wear for school that day. No one cared about looks or popularity because as long as you had fun in your life everything was perfect and that was that... I have my reasons why I work with children rather than adults.”, Lina added quieter and took a bite of her eggs. 

“You work with children?”, Peter asked generally interested. 

“Yes. I help out in a pre school and kindergarten thrice a week. I keep an eye on all of them, play with them. We bake and run around. It's perfect. Sometimes we go to the zoo. When you work with kids you don't need an excuse to sometimes behave like them. The situation just requires it. And believe me there is no better feeling after a crappy day of school than toddlers running in your arms yelling your name. It sounds silly but it's true. There is so much genuine love spreading from these children and they don't even realize it. It's just a normal average condition for them. They give so much and expect nothing in return because it's just their nature.”, Lina talked excitedly about the children. But her eyes got wet in the end and she looked at the table trying to erase the evidence of tears. 

Peter realized it was a sore subject. Not the children on their own but what they represent. Love. So he tried to change the subject to something different. “They sound great. I met a lot of children since I started to be Spider-Man. I think they appreciate me even more than the people I actually help sometimes.”, Peter chuckled. 

“How does it feel to swing through the air?”, Lina asked with a spark in her eyes. 

“It feels... incredible. I don't even know how to describe it. There is a freedom to the action I can't even fully comprehend. It clears your head and brings new perspective. Suddenly you can see everything from a different point of view. Literally and theoretically. You start to get a strange understanding of people you could never relate to before. I don't know why but I kind of do. Maybe it's because of what I do on it's own, just the plain act of swinging on webs and climbing on ceilings, is just so odd on it own, that there isn't really anything I can judge or find weird in any kind of way.”, Peter only now realized he never really thought about any of that stuff if he was honest. He had a big smile spread across is face though. 

“That... actually makes sense.”, Lina chuckled. 

They kept eating for a few more minutes but both of them realized breakfast wasn't all that appealing at the moment. Lina put away the dishes. “We need to go to the hospital today.”, she told Peter who just took another pain killer. 

“I know. But I can't go like this.”, he pointed at his sleep attire. 

“Yeah no, that's not gonna work.”, she had an idea. “Come on. I can't promise any fitting jeans but maybe a pair sweatpants. Shirts and jackets should work though, they're all from the men's section anyways.”, they entered Lina room. 

It was about twice as big as Peter's but much less clean. “Sorry for the mess. I'm not big on cleaning.”, she apologized. There were pieces of clothing, books, papers and empty water bottles (1 liter) staggered all over the place. There was a big corner closet with matching cupboards, shelves, bed and table. It was all made of some kind of light wood. She had a big window over her table and a many books and DVDs in the shelve over her bed. Her walls were painted purple and lime green. An odd color combination but it worked surprisingly well together. On the right side of her window hung a pride flag and there were some pictures of Lina herself in various age ranges with different people. Some with friends and some with children, probably the ones she worked with. But there were no pictures with adults. No parents, grandparents or other relatives. 

It was now that Peter realized he hasn't even met Lina's parents nor seemed to live anyone but Lina in this house. It was a little odd to say at least and Peter really wanted to know what was up with that story but he doesn't even really know the girl so he didn't pry. 

Lina opened her closet. For it being so big there was comparatively little clothing in it. Still about thrice the amount of Peter's. When Peter looked over everything Lina started to explain. 

“This section is for pants. I have some that are too big or long further in the back. They might fit you. I have dark tees here and brighter more colorful ones here.”, she pointed to the middle of the right side. “Over here are long sleeves. The thickest are on the highest tray and the thinnest in the lowest.”, she explained the right side. “And on the rack in the middle are button-ups, flannels, zip-ups, jackets and everything else that opens in he front.”, she made a zipper motion in front of her body. 

Peter chuckled. “Thank you. I'm sure I'm gonna find something.” 

“Great, than I'm gonna take a shower.”, Lina announced quickly picking out black pants, a wonder woman tee and gray zip up. “Music is over there.”, she pointed at her stereo on one of the shelves which had about 150 CDs on the shelf over it. 

She herself fetched her speaker which she connected to her phone and disappeared into the bathroom. She started to play something alternative and Peter was left alone in the strange room. He picked out a CD which was clearly a mix tape labeled _Kindheit in 30 Liedern_ (Childhood in 30 songs) . He didn't know what it meant but the songs he saw on it gave him an idea about what it might be about. 

When the first song came on he was instantly thrown back to his 9 year old self. _Pumped Up Kids_ by _Foster The People_. Peter would love to bob along but his ribs didn't play with him for that. He found fitting pants which were still a bit loose even on him. Where the hell did this girl buy these pants? Next he decided for a dark blue button-up, since pulling a shirt over his head was painful, and a wider green gray checkered fleecy jacket to wear later when they had to go outside. 

After _Shake It, Dirty Little Secret, I Write Sins Not Tragedies_ and _Hey There Delilah_ Lina emerged from the bathroom fully dressed and done hair. “Okay I'm ready. I'm gonna pack everything we need and then we can go when you're ready. I'm gonna pack something to snack and drink in case we have to wait for a while. I'm gonna get you sunglasses because honestly your face looks creepy and it's probably too bright outside with your concussion.”, Lina pointed at her forehead. 

“That would actually be great. Even in here my head hurts and it's not even that bright. I'm gonna brush my teeth real quick.”, he said and went to the bathroom. 

Lina packed _Eierplätzchen_ as something sweet and some plain cracker as something salty. Then she got two bottles of water (1 liter each), her ID, money and paper and a pen. You never knew when you needed those. Also tissues and a pocket umbrella because it was fall and it might rain even if they didn't say it in the weather forecast. 

Then she quickly connected her phone with the landline in case May called or anyone else who wanted to talk to Peter or if Peter wanted to call someone. Lina slowly grew a little tired since she would usually go to bed about now. 

She just tied her shoes when Peter came into the hallway joining her. “I got you a pair of shoes from one of my friends who forgot them here. Mainly because those are the only ones big enough for you. I hope you don't mind but you didn't really came with anything but your broken suit.”, the girl explained. 

“That's awesome. Thank you. I almost thought I might have to go barefoot.”, he chuckled and bent down to put them on. “Ugh, no!”, but was fast interrupted by pain. 

“Sit on the chest.”, she pointed at where she just sat on. It was a chest used as a shoe wreck. “I'm gonna tie them.”, and she did just as she said. 

Peter felt embarrassed. He was sixteen and couldn't even tie shoes? Well not without help that is at the moment. “Thank you”, he said sheepishly and they both left the house. Lina handed Peter the sunglasses which he was especially grateful for since it was just that bright. Lina closed her zip-up and threw a jean jacket with various patches on it's back over her shoulders, than her back pack and locked the front door. 

“I'm afraid we're gonna have to take the bus since I'm only 15 and am not allowed to drive. It's only a 20 minute drive though so it should be okay.”, Lina explained while they slowly made their way to the end of the street to the bus station. 

It's really only one more house so it takes them like two minutes. “No it's fine. The only problem is that I don't have anything I could ID myself with. What if they wanna check and I can't give them anything. Maybe they won't even treat me at the hospital.”, Peter speculated wildly. 

“Wow, chill. It's gonna be fine. They're doctors. They have to treat you because you're hurt. They also know me over there so they might as well just take you because I vouch for you or something.” 

“Why do they know you over in the hospital?”, Peter was curious and they had to wait another five minutes for the bus. 

“I told you about how I have this youth paramedic certificate for like casual wounds and stuff.”, he nodded. “I made it there and I got it because of the children I work with and the soccer games I play EMT at. Which means I'm there almost every weekend. I haven't been since all the people disappeared though. A lot of the hospital staff was gone. It's been really hard for them to keep up their work. I did some night shifts the last few weeks since our school is closed and we get our assignments online.”, Lina explained the situation to Peter. 

The bus came. But something was weird. “Wait but I disappeared too. Did anybody else come back too? I can't be the only one right?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is Peter the only one?  
> Thoughts? Critisism? Ideas or stuff you think i could incorperate? All in the comments please!!!
> 
> Thank you!!! xx
> 
> PS: wish me luck for my exam tomorrow


	4. phone calls and hang man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter calls someone and finds out if he's the only one who came back after the snap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decited to go into a darker way with the story but Peter will get better at first. Not for long though but i want to at least give him a litte more physical strengh
> 
> Hope you gonna like it! xx

_I can't be the only one right?_

“If people reappeared it would be on the news right? Or somewhere, really.”, Lina concluded. 

“Probably. But did you watch or read any news today?”, because Peter couldn't remember any potential informing broadcasts happening this morning.

“No, not really.”, they sat down next to each other in the bus and Lina took out her phone. “Oh god you're right. Look.”, she showed Peter her phone. The internet loaded with news about people randomly reappearing everywhere all over the world.

“I mean I understand maybe like 5% of the articles you're showing me but the random reappearing explains why I was suddenly in Germany rather than Titan where I disappeared.”, Peter now concluded and leaned back against his seat closing his eyes behind the glasses. “This is crazy. I don't even know what to say.”, none of the two had words for it.

“Do you think I... maybe... I could call someone?”, Peter asked the girl who was still engrossed in an article, uncertain. Was it okay to ask it? She did tell him to just ask but then again it was still expensive and really like...

But Lina disrupted Peter's thoughts. “No problem. Here.”,she held her hand out for him to take the device.

“Thanks.”, he mumbled, gave her a grateful smile and checked the time. 9.28am. That meant 3.28am in New York. Peter groaned already knowing he will probably wake someone up even though he didn't want it... _But he had to call_ , he told himself and dialed.

_“Yes?”_ , the voice on the other side sounded tired.

“Pepper? Did I wake you? I'm so sorry ... the time difference. I'm – I'm gonna call back later.”, the boy ranted hastily.

_“Peter?! Oh my god, are you okay? No, you're not gonna hang up now. We were so worried. May already called and told us you were safe but it's even better to hear your voice.”_ , Pepper sounded so relieved to actually hear Peter's voice.

_“Is that the kid?”_ , asked Tony tiredly in the background. Then his voice was louder. _“Peter? Kid are you okay? Where are you? Are you hurt?”_ , he sounded exactly like the concerned father figure he was for Peter.

“I'm fine Mr. Stark. I swear I'm okay. I mean I will be. I'm – I'm on my way to the hospital with Lina right now and...”

_“Put her on.”_ , he sounded rather stoic.

“What?”, Peter was confused.

_“Lana or whatever the person's looking after you is called.”_ , he answered in an _isn't-that-obvious?_ Voice.

“He wants to talk to you.”, Peter held out the phone.

“What? Why?”, they still had another 15 minutes to go and the bus was completely empty except for the Mr. Schneider in the front who drove with the same bus at the same time everyday. But he was pretty much deaf.

“I don't know.”, Peter shrugged and Lina took the phone.

“Hello?”, who was even on the phone? 

_“Is the kid okay? I know he won't tell me the truth about his injuries. How bad is it really?”_ , the man was overly concerned. It was kinda cute, Lina thought. But then again...

“Who are you?”, she asked confused because she really didn't know who she was talking to.

_“Tony Stark. But that's not the important part right now.”_ , he urged her to answer.

Wow, she didn't expect that to ever happen but sure, _let's roll with it_ , Lina thought.

“People really don't trust you with the truth about your injuries, man.”, Lina said to Peter before she got back to Tony again. “He's got a concussion but I woke him up every hour over night so he's fine. His ribs and shoulder got some bumbs but it wouldn't surprise me if it's nothing that big. I guess he looks worse than it actually is.”, Lina told the man truthfully. There are a lot of people who are really concerned about this boy and they deserved the truth and honestly she was a little bit scared to lie to Iron Man. Who knows what'll happen to her if he finds out.

_“Where do you live? I'm gonna come as fast as possible.”_ , Tony answered.

“What? No. Are you crazy? It's like 3.30 in New York. At least wait for the morning to get over here. You already crashed one of our airports. We don't need that a second time just because Iron Man is sleep deprived.”, Lina never really gave a shit who she was talking to. She just spoke out her opinion straight forward. And even though Tony Stark was something else, she didn't need that. “We might wait for quite a while anyways since people started to reappear. Peter's probably not the only one hurt.”, to be honest she didn't need two Avengers in her little village. Technically the hospital was in the next town but still.

_“Tony, she's right. You're too emotional right now to fly. We can go later today but you need sleep first.”_ , it was a woman who talked this time. For her it seemed to be terrible to see Tony as miserable as he was right now but he really needed to give his own body the chance to rehabilitate after this epic universal fight.

Lina could hear Tony sighing. _“You're right. I'm sorry honey.”_ , he was obviously talking to is significant other... what was her name? She did pretty much the whole work at Stark Industries... Pepper Potts! _“Lana? Please just look after him. Thank you for doing this.”_ , he sounded just like May earlier. Anne had to smile at the love Peter received.

“It's Lina but no problem. I'll do my best. I'm gonna give him the phone back now.”, so she handed it back to Peter.

“Mr. Stark?”

_“Kid, you look after yourself. No more injuries or wounds or anything, understood?”_ , Tony just couldn't bare his child getting hurt which – understandable.

“I won't Mr. Stark. I promise. I just wanted to call and tell you I'm okay. And thank you for saving me.”, his voice sounded so little.

_“I'm glad you're alive kid. Call me when you're out of the hospital and tell Lina to text me her address so I can pick you up.”_ , he quickly added _“Bye.”_ , not giving Peter the chance to   
argue about anything.

Peter looked a bit confused at Lina's phone and gave it back to the girl next to him. Lina really wanted to know the story behind Tony Stark being basically Spider-Man's dad but she put it away for another time. They still had some hours together anyways.

The bus came to a halt and Lina got up from her seat. “Come on. Let's get you checked out.”, she smiled at Peter and they went inside the hospital.

“Lina! Was machst du hier? Gehts dir gut? Warst du auch verschwunden, ich hab dich nähmlich in den letzten Wochen nicht gesehen.” (Lina! What are you doing here? How are you? Did you disappear too because I haven't seen you in weeks.), a woman in white scrubs, Peter guessed a nurse, came running over to said girl.

“Bei mir ist alles gut. Ich hab ein paar Nachtschichten gehabt. Hab für Micha ausgeholfen. Ich bin hier, weil gestern jemand an meiner Tür geklingelt hat.” (I'm all good. I took some night shifts for Micha. I'm here because someone knocked at my door last night.), Lina took a step to the left to reveal Peter to the nurse who stood some steps away taking in the hospital.

“Komm, ich mach'n Formular fertig. Bring ihn mit. Wir treffen uns im Warteraum, okay?” (C'mon, I'm gonna get a form ready. Take him to the waiting area, we'll meet up there, okay?), the woman smiled at Lina who nodded gratefully.

“Danke Ines, du bist die Beste.” (Thanks Ines, you're the best.), she hugged her quickly and turned to Peter. “Peter, we can sit. My friend's bringing over all the papers you need.”, she explained and they went to the waiting room.

“If you get bored or thirsty or hungry, I bought some stuff with me.”, Lina hold up the back pack when they settled into the chairs. They were pretty uncomfortable because they were hospital chairs but whatever at least they could sit for the next few hours.

“Something to drink would be great actually.”, and the girl gave him a bottle. He smiled thankfully.

“Okay”, said Ines when she approached the two. “Ich hab hier alles was du ausfüllen musst.” (I got everything here you have to fill out.), she directed at Peter who only watched her in a confused expression. Ines checked the papers though so she couldn't see it. “Wenn du deine Chipkarte nicht mit hast ist es nicht so schlimm. (If you don't have your chipcard with you, it's no problem.) Es sind schon relativ viele hier gewesen ohne. Es ist ein bisschen Ausnahmezustand üerall gerade. Wir haben zu tun seit 3 Uhr morgens weil aufeinmal allemöglichen Menschen scheinbar aus dem Himmel gefallen sind.”, now she looked up to see Peter's face. Then he switched over to Lina.

“What did she say?”, this was a strange situation. 

“You have to fill out those papers but since you don't have a chipcard the middle part doesn't concern you. Then she just talked about a lotta randoms who come here steadily since 3 am since everyone started to reappear around that time.”, Lina translated and looked up to Ines. “Braucht er nicht noch so'n Auslandversicherungs-irgendwas-irgendwas-formular?” (Didn't he need one of these foreign health insurance-something-something papers?), she asked the nurse because Germany had a form for everything.

“Ja! Das scheint wohl angebracht in dieser Situation.” (Yes! That would be appropriate for the situation.), Ines answered the girl a bit bewildered then she turned to Peter. “My English is not good. Lina needs to help. Sorry.”, the excused herself.

“She's just getting a new form since you're foreign. But we can still start with this one here.”, she held up the clipboard with a paper in front. “English translation is on it. You can do it alone if you'd like.”, she held it over to him.

He took it. “Thanks.”, and started to scribble away on the paper. In between Ines came back with the form for foreigners and handed it over too. “I don't know all the stuff that has to go on here. My aunt usually fills out these kinda things. And I don't think we have insurance in foreign countries.”, Peter sounded a bit embarrest. Why did he not know everything? On the other hand he's only 16 and never really had to go to the hospital before.

“It's okay. I'm gonna ask Ines about it but it shouldn't be much of a problem. All the lines with stars – the ones you have to fill out – are filled. If you don't wanna add anything I can bring it back to the front.”, Lina offered.

“That would be nice. Thank you.”, Peter gave over the forms and Lina disappeared into the hallway with them.

The boy took the chance to look around the room. It was pretty full. He saw people of all ages, ethnicities and religions judging by traditional clothing. He heard at least four different languages. Some people had visible injuries and wounds, some didn't.

He saw a lot of children asleep against adults, maybe their parents but Peter didn't know for sure. A man with curly hair had his face scrunched up in pain and held his left arm. The woman next to him talked to him in some language he never heard before but he could tell she tried to calm her companion down. It didn't really work though because he didn't relax at all. Another nurse came in and called out a balkan sounding name. The man got up with the woman and limped his way over to the nurse.

Peter also didn't know how such a little town could bring up that many patients. What he didn't know was the fact this hospital was the only one in the vicinity of kilometers. It was there for a slightly bigger town and seven other villages like Lina's but most of them a little bigger than her one-street-cramp (We use cramp in Germany to describe something really small.).

Lina came back after the three were gone and sat next to Peter again. “Ines said people a lot of people with bad injuries came in earlier. Most of the trauma rooms are full and due to very little staff everything takes a bit longer. There are approximately 5 people before you. Some of them are children who may not be particularly badly injured but sit here since 4 or 5 this morning. If you suddenly feel worse though you have to say something and you'll get treated immediately, of course.”, Lina added and Peter nodded.

“No, the pills do their work. I'm good for now. What do we do now?”, he asked because could feel himself getting bored already. That's the downside of being Spider-Man – apart from the being in space and fighting to safe the universe – you always need to do something. Since Peter became a superhero he became extremely fidgety and had to do something all the time. He was also still pretty tired but not as exhausted anymore and he got a little scared he'd get nightmares when he closed his eyes now.

“Well, I'd say Netflix or reading but I won't let you do either of those things with a subsiding concussion. How do feel about hangman?”, she suggests and pulls out a pad and pencils. 

“I haven't played that in years.”, his face lit up. “Yes! Let's do this.”, he grabbed the utensils and made a few lines.

“Nothing too complicated though please. My English is not _that great.”_ , she sounded a little self-conscious.

“Are kidding? Apart from your little accent and some mistakes I barely even process, you're English is fantastic. You're gonna be fine believe me.”, he didn't even look up from the paper. He just said in as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

Lina wasn't sure what to answer. Usually people mocked her because she preferred English over German and confused both languages sometimes because of it. She never heard anyone talking about her skills as genuine as Peter did who knew her more or less 6 hours. And he had to know what he was talking about right? He was native after all.

“Uhm, thanks. I'll do my best.”, she answered awkwardly. 

But Peter hadn't even heard it, he was checking the amount of lines he made on the paper for his word. Peter put down the pad so Lina could see it too. 10 lines. Not too long.

“Let's start with _e_.”, Peter made the first plank.

“Oh, well okay... how 'bout _o_?”, because there had to be at least one vocal right? That's the first thing you should always start with in hangman.

_ _ _ o _ _ _ o _ _ 

“Yes.”, Lina whispered under her breath. It could still be anything though.

" _G_?”, a second plank.

" _P_?”, another plank. 

“Shit...”, Lina stated. “Let's go with, I don't know _s_?”, she questioned.

s_ _ o_ _ _ o _ s

“Okay.... _m_. Because there's always an _m_ or _n_. Always.”, there just some letters that are always there.

s_ _ o _ _ m o _ s

She might have an idea where this is going. " _u_ ”

“Dammit.”, Peter mumbled. 

s _ _ o _ _ m o u s

“If there's two _y_ 's in there, I know what word it is.”, Lina stated really hoping for _y_ 's because otherwise would seriously have no idea whatsoever.

“Ugh, yes it has two _y_ 's.”, and wrote them in the lines.

s y _ o _ y m o u s

“Synonymous.”

“Yes...”

“Yes!”

“See, I told you you had the vocabulary for it. The next one's definitely not going to be this easy.”, Peter stated and thought of a longer one.

19 lines this time. “Seriously?”, Lina looked at him questioningly. 

“Yep.”, he looked rather smug.

“Hm... okay let's start with _e_ again.”, Lina shrugged.

_ e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Oh nice. Okay, emhh... it's long so I'm guessing another vocal is in there. Maybe even two but let's go with _a_ this time.”, hoping her thoughts made sense.

_ e _ _ _ _ a _ _ _ _ a _ _ a _ _ _ _

Lina smirked. “Where there's an _a_ there's a _t_.”, she said drily. Waiting for Peter's answer. He only rolled his eyes.

_ e _ _ t _ a _ _ _ _ a _ t a t _ _ _

“The back looks like could be with -ing.... ”, every move until now was strategic. More or less at least. Still, a technically coincidental game can be made absolutely strategic and planable.

“Gimme an _i_ Peter.”, Lina announces.

_ e _ _ t _ a _ _ _ _ a _ t a t i _ _

A triumphing “Yes!”, came from the girl and Peter had to smirk because he knew Lina thoughts went into the wrong direction.

“An _n_ next please.”, she requested.

_ e n _ t _ a n _ _ _ a n t a t i _ n

“This was not what I was going for...”, she was confused. But then shrugged. “Whatever it worked anyways.”, she looked at the word for a little.... “I'll go with _o_ because it's the most obvious one.”

_ e n o t _ a n _ _ _ a n t a t i o n

“It's something – transplantation. Renotransplantation, would be a nose transplantation but I don't know if that's a thing... I can't google huh?”, Peter looked super unconvincing at her.

“Never. No, cheating. That would be lame but I can tell you, you're right with the transplantation – part.”, he won't give her another clue though.

They sat in silence for give or take five minutes. “XENOTRANSPLANTATION!!!!”, Lina yelled and everyone turned towards her looking rather pissed. “Sorry”, she apologized sheepishly. 

“What?! No! How do you even know that? I took a word not even I knew since about a month ago.”, Peter pouted.

“I don't know but I remembered something about xenophobia from Supergirl since I watched the new episode yesterday. And I read an article about transplanting animal parts in humans like a pig's heart and I know from Supergirl xeno means basically not human and it kinda just smushed together I guess...”, she didn't really know how it happened but it did and worked. “Nice one though.”, they high fived.

Peter yawned. “My head hurts.”, he complained.

“Sleep. I'm gonna wake you when your name gets dropped.”, Lina tells him while she gets her phone out. At least she can read. 

What Lina didn't know of Peter's fear of nightmares. He swallowed hard and tried to calm his mind and he didn't wanna sleep but he also knew with sleep his head's gonna feel better and last night nothing happened anyways. Maybe he didn't even get nightmares. Peter knew that explanation was bullshit but right now he clung to the thought to calm his brain to be able to fall asleep.

Lina looked up from her phone 10 mins into her fanfiction only to find Peter fast asleep with his shoulders sagged and head on his right shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you find out the hangman words before Lina? Also the chipcard is a thing we need for the government issued insurance in Germany which is also the most common one. Ines is based on a great friend of mine who is just all kinds of awesome so she made it into my story. 
> 
> Also if you're wondering when Peter's issues start: !!!SPOLER ALERT!!!! -> _chapter six_ AND the explanation for xenotransplantation made a lotta sense to me. If it doesn't for you don't feel alone, my brother didn't get it either. He just called me weird and left my room.
> 
> tell me all your thoughts in the comments!


	5. x-rays and peas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter finally gets his treatment and Lina and him can leave the hospital. Also Tony and Pepper are finally there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy (belated) easter or passover or apparently day of the earth according to the google doodle.
> 
> The chapter comes late but i didn't have time to post since we had extended family over for easter. There were too many people and it suddenly got extremely hot outside and it was all a little much. I'm happy to be back though and I hope you're gonna like this chapter.
> 
> Peace! xx

“Peter Parker?”, a nurse with a heavy German accent announced.

“Ja moment.” **(Yes, a second.)** , Lina said quickly and turned to the boy next to her. He woke up after 30 mins into his nap looking rather fearful but Lina didn't comment on it. They rearranged his sleeping accommodation which meant they took a second chair so Peter could lay down without breaking his neck. But then he fell asleep again for the next hour. “Peter.”, Lina shook his shoulder carefully. “Peter they said your name.”, he slowly highered his head from the jacket his face was burried in. Lina noted his red-rimmed eyes for a later time point.

The bruising on Peter's face looked surprisingly better than this morning. _Odd_ , Lina thought. His face was still scrunched up when they followed the nurse into the treatment room. The nurse actually requested Lina to come with them since she could speak English better than most doctors.

“Guten Tag, mein Name ist Dr. Zimmermann. Ich hab gehört, dass Sie auch einfach aufgetaucht sind hier letzte Nacht?”, he addressed Peter who nodded along and finally looked over to Lina.

“Hello, my name's Dr. Zimmermann. I heard you are one of people who just appeared last night?”, she translated. 

“Yes and I hurt myself by it pretty badly I think. Lina can tell you what's wrong better though.”, because honestly everything just hurt. He felt his bruising got a bit less because of his spider abilities but otherwise he still felt shitty as hell. Usually he doesn't take that long to heal but Peter's also never been this hurt either and he was pretty sure even the powers had limits. Peter was also pretty sure he had some kind of nightmare but didn't really remember anything whatsoever.

“Ja und ich glaub ich mach dabei schwer verletzt. Er meint, aber ich kanns besser erklären.” **(He says I can explain it better though.)** , Lina told the doctor and started to rattle down Peter's symptoms and wounds. “Er hat sich den Kopf angeschlagen und hat vermutlich 'ne Gehirnerschütterung. Ich hab ihn jede Stunde geweckt und er hatte nie irgendwechelche Aussetzer. Die 7. und 8. linke Rippe sind angeknaxt. Ich habs mit 'nem Verband erstmal getaped und gekühlt. Seine ganze linke Seite ist grün und blau. Er hat um halb vier heute 'ne 800-er Ibu genommen und heute früh gegen neun nochmal. Seine Wange ist ganzschön empfindlich und seine linke Schulder ist dick. Ich hab alles geeist was irgendwie blau war außer die Schulder. Achso, sein Knöchel war gestern ein wenig dick, aber er hatte heute keine großen Probleme mit dem Laufen. Nach dem Kühlen war es besser, dort ist wahrscheinlich nur was geprellt.” **(He hit his head and probably has a concussion. I woke him every hour and he never had any blackouts. On his left the 7th and 8th ribs are cracked. I taped and cooled it for now but his whole left side is black and blue. At 3.30 he took an 800 ibuprofen and again this morning around 9. His cheek's pretty sensitive and his left shoulder's swollen. I iced everything blue except for the shoulder. Oh right, his ankle was slightly swollen last night but he didn't complain about it hurting today while walking. After cooling it it was better so it's probably just bruised.)** , the doctor checked the chart and wrote down some notes on it. 

Peter listened to them talking and understood nothing but the word 'ibuprofen'. The light and unknown vocabulary made him a little dizzy. He tried to blend it out but it was hard.

“Okay.”, he nodded thoughtfully while he wrote. “Würdest du dein T-Shirt ausziehen bitte? Ich muss mir mal deine Seite angucken.” **(Would you please take off your shirt? I have to check on your left side.)** , he looked at Peter.

“You have to loose the shirt so he can check out your bruising.”, she translated analogously and yawned. Lina started to turn even more tired but she couldn't afford sleep right now. Peter needed her to communicate.

Peter took off his shirt and the doctor gestured for him to lay down. “Ich werde dich jetzt abtasten. Sag mir wenn was wehtut und vorallem wie. Stechend oder dumpf, oberflächlich oder tiefergehend.”, he explained in a calming voice and even though Peter didn't understand him he got the feeling he maybe kinda did. But probably not, it was weird and Peter pinned it on his head.

“He's gonna palpate your side. You have to tell him where it hurts and what the pain feels like. Stabbing, dull, surface level or more internal.”, Peter answered he understood and the doctor started.

In the end they found out his rib pain felt stabbing and internal, his head dull and kinda pressing, the gash was stabbing though, the shoulder dull but also burning, his foot only stung a little but was fine otherwise. His cheek was still a little swollen and it felt more stabbing. The doctor sent him to radiology for x-rays on his ribs, face and shoulder as well as an MRI for his head since he still had a headache. He checked Peter's ankle but there were no irritations in movement or swellings.

They waited in the radiology department when Peter started to talk. Lina didn't hear him talk a lot since he came last night. But who could blame him, really. “I'm really glad I decided for the button-down. I don't get my arms higher than this.”, he held them up not more than 50 degree angle.

Lina had to chuckle a little. “I'm sorry.”, then she yawned. “I know it's not nice to laugh because your hurt but it looks so funny.”, she held a hand in front of her mouth only to yawn again.

“Why don't you sleep a little now? You've been up literally all night.”, it was great of her but she also needed sleep. “No sleep is even more un-healthy than this.”, he pointed at his face.

“No, you need someone for translating.”, she shook her head.

“I understand my name and I'm gonna wake you, just like you woke me. If I need you I'll wake you earlier. Promise.”, he knew she didn't wanna leave him alone, even if it was just metaphorically, because he'd do the same thing. And he can only imagine how it must be for her right now.

Lina sighed. “Okay, fine. The person before you in the MRI is almost ready anyways. I guess you can wake me then. Thank you.”, she gave him a grateful smile but Peter could see the tiredness in her eyes.

Lina closed her eyes and fell asleep after adjusting her position about 20 times. Hospital chairs are just hella uncomfortable.

Peter heard his name after 20 mins and dutiful as he was he woke Lina up. The MRI took 30 mins with 5 mins of prep. Lina waited outside because of the radiation.

The next station were x-rays which Peter got to just 3 mins after the MRI. They did all the bones in different positions which followed by Lina and Peter having to wait for the evaluation in the waiting room.

“Hey, do you think I could call Mr. Stark and tell him where we are?”, he asked an hour into the waiting.

“The hospital in Frankfurt on Oder but I live in the outskirts of Markendorf.”, Lina said and gave him the phone. “I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick.”, she looked at her almost empty bottle. 

Peter nodded and started to dial. After Lina was out of sight and the phone rang five times Tony Stark's voice filled Peter's ear. _“Kid?”_ , he sounded more awake then at the last all.

“Hi Mr. Stark. I hope you could sleep a little more. I just had an MRI and some x-rays. We have to wait again though. I just wanted to tell you Lina lives in Markendorf, I think she said?”, German was a weird language.

_“I know. I'm already on my way to you.”_ , he said as if it was the most obvious answer ever.

“What... how?.... Oh you just tracked Lina's phone didn't you?”, actually Peter would've been more weirded out if Mr. Stark wouldn't have done it.

_“I'm sorry. It's an invasion of privacy, I know, but I just needed to know where you were.”_ , he was distraught and his head was elsewhere probably Peter's health.

“It's okay. I'm sure she'll understand. She's just coming back actually. When will you be here?”

_“Three or four hours max.”_ , which means he's been in the air for at least three hours. Peter knew Mr. Stark made his plane faster than usual private jets which gave him a time release of about a third.

“I'm not sure we'll be back by then. There are a lot of people waiting here.”, Peter looked around the waiting room.

_“No problem, I'll find you.”_ , _I always do_ , he wanted to say but didn't. He couldn't safe him on Titan and it's his fault Peter was this beaten up right now.

“Well good then. I'll see you soon. Bye, Mr. Stark.”, Peter said off.

_“See you kid.”_ , they hung up.

“You know when he'll be here?”, Lina asked when she took her phone checking her texts.

“A few hours. Do you think we'll be done here soon? I'm getting a bit antsy.”, his right leg bounced a little.

“I think there are three people before you. You won't be on for at least another hour. You wanna go outside a little bit?”, she could use some fresh air too.

“Yes please.”

The air was colder than inside but the sun was warming their faces. Lina found a bench which they sat down on. They didn't say anything just enjoying the rays pulling smiles on their faces. Both felt how their batteries starting to fill up again. When a taxi held next to them, about 30 mins later, they went back inside waiting for Peter's name to be called.

They ate some _Eierplätzchen_ which Peter thought were absolutely delicious, read some news about the world dealing with the time after The Snap and how much chaos was happening because of it. Many hurt people, broken buildings and trouble between nations. Peter's face turned pensive. 

“You alright?”, Lina asked him, concerned about his change of mood.

“No... no, it's just...”, he pointed at a picture of a crying child in front of debris of a building. “I just wanna help out, you know? But even if I could, I couldn't be everywhere where I might be needed. It's just frustrating to see these pictures knowing I could've prevented it.”, _with great power comes great responsibility._

“You helped literally saving the universe. You're hurt and that's okay. You need to get well too. It's not a bad thing, you know. Peter, the people won't hate you for getting hurt. If you would take everything you could've prevented everywhere in the world, you'd burn out faster than you could say 'preventing'. You gave your life for the universe and went to another planet. I'm sure you almost died on the way there more than just once. Without you and your superhero friends there wouldn't be a universe or at least not more than half of one.”, Lina tried to put her thoughts into words but Peter didn't say anything. “I'm sorry, I'm not good with those kinds of things. Just forget what I said-”, Lina told him guiltily.

“No, no, no, it's okay. That was actually pretty good. Thank you.”, Peter smiled gratefully after interrupting the girl. He was still out of it but that wasn't that surprising.

“Peter Parker, bitte.”, they heard a new nurse calling for them.

“Come on let's get this over with so we can get back. I need sleep and comfy clothing.”, Lina yawned and gathered her backpack.

“Wir haben deine Tests ausgewertet. Die gute Nachricht ist du hast keine Hirnblutung und deine Wunde am Hinterkopf ist nur eine Fleischwunde. Allerdings ist dein Schädel etwas geprellt, deshalb hast du noch Kopfschmerzen. Ich werde dir was verschreiben, wenn du möchten.”, he pointed at the MRI of Peter's head and the matching x-ray.

“They went through your tests and the good news is you don't have a brain bleed and your gash is just a flesh wound. Though your skull is bruised which is also where your holding headache comes from. If you want he'll subscribe you some painkillers.”, Lina repeated the doctors words to Peter. He nodded along but declined the painkillers. 

“Deine Schulter ist stark gezerrt und etwas entzündet. Deshalb ist sie immernoch dick und fühlt sich heiß an. Ich verschreibe dir eine entzündungshemmende Salbe die du alle 8 Stunden auftragen musst. Sollte das brennende Gefühl noch länger als 3 Tage anhalten, suche bitte einen Arzt auf.”, Dr. Zimmermann pointed everything out while explaining his situation to Peter.

“You pulled your shoulder quite hard and it's a bit inflamed. The burning your feeling?”, he nodded. “It comes from the inflammation. He prescribes you an anti-inflammatory balm for it. You have to put it on every 8 hours and if the shoulder's still hot in 3 days you have to go to a doctor again. I think your ribs are next.”, Lina pointed at the next x-rays.

“Can I take the German meds to America?”, he asked Lina. Because what if you can't? What if he had to go to the hospital in Queens again just because he couldn't take them with him? That is too expensive for May to pay. But wait. “Wait no, it doesn't matter. Mr. Stark is coming with his private jet. I can take whatever.”, he waved off.

“And even if not. You could've taken it with you just not in your carry-on baggage.”, she explained the rules for flying to the boy. She knew it because she had to fly a lot up until some years ago because now she was just sick of it and her parent went everywhere without her. 

“Good to know though.”, Peter smiled.

“Sie können jetzt forfahren.”, Lina told the doctor. “He's going to continue.”, she told Peter.

“Gut. Deine Rippen haben das Schlimmste abbekommen. Die 7. und 8. sind angeknaxt aber nicht durchgebrochen. Glücklicherweise wurde deine Lunge nicht punktiert. Sollten Atemprobleme aufkommen, musst du aber sofort den Notarzt rufen. Wir werden deine Rippen bandagieren damit sie ruhiggestellt sind. Das bedeutet auch minimale Bewegung für die nächsten 3 Wochen mindestens damit deine Rippen vernünftig heilen können. Kein Rennen, Heben, kein Gewicht drauf und liegen ist besser als sitzen. Die Rippen drumrum sind geprellt.”, it was fascinating for Peter how even though he didn't understand the doctor he knew what he was talking about only by following his showing and gesturing on the x-rays. Does that make a good doctor? Maybe. Well Peter didn't know either.

“Your ribs got the worst of it. Number 7 and 8 are fractured but not completely broken through. Fortunately it didn't puncture your lungs. When you get trouble breathing we have to call 911 though. Your ribs are gonna get bandaged to hold them in place and let them rest to heal. Also minimal movements for at least three weeks. No lifting, running, jumping or swinging.”, Lina looked at him accusingly. No Spider-Man for at least three weeks, was Peter's message. “Also lying down is better for your ribs than sitting up. Some other ribs are bruised.”, Peter pouted a little because he wanted to get back to being Spider-Man as fast as possible.

“Ansonsten bist du insgesamt etwas angeditscht und wirst vermutlich überall Schmerzen haben. Eine Schwester wird gleich kommen und dir einen Verband anlegen und die Entlassungspapiere mitbringt mit deinem Rezept. Dort steht auch nochmal drauf wann und wie oft du die Salbe nehmen musst. Bist du sicher, dass sie keine Schmerzmittel möchtest?”

“Other than your actual injuries you are pretty beaten and will probably be sore for a while. A nurse's gonna come in a few and put on the bandages. She'll also bring your discharge papers with your prescription. It also says how often to take the creme in case you forget. Are you sure you don't want any painkillers?”, but Peter declined again.

“No it's okay. If I really need some, May has Midol and such at home. I'll be fine.”, he explained and Lina told the doctor. To be honest, he doubted that anything below the 800 ibuprofen will be strong enough to even affect him in any kind of way.

Peter thanked the doctor and later the nurse when she put the bandages over his ribs. He signed the discharge papers and Lina told him they were gonna run by a pharmacy on their way home. There was one only 3 minutes away from the hospital. They went there and Lina payed while Peter already talked about paying her back and Lina sighing telling him he didn't have to because “it's only like 6 Euros”. He still argued but Lina stopped listening telling him she was “too tired for this shit”.

They took the bus back and both fell asleep on the ride. Since Lina took the same root basically every week, she knew when her stop was unconsciously. So she woke up at the right time, shrugged Peter awake and walked the two houses to their destination. Lina was tired but also hungry and the hunger kept her awake.

“Ugh”, she groaned. “I have to eat before I can sleep, I'm too hungry. Do you want something too?”, her face turned to Peter sat down on the couch. But when she saw him, he was already asleep on top of the blankets again. “Whatever, I'm gonna make something with peas.”, she loved peas. She didn't know why, she just did.

Lina took out spaghetti, onions, peas, bacon, cherry tomatoes and broccoli. She put on water for the pasta and started to cut the onions, tomatoes, bacon and broccoli. The broccoli got a steam bath in an extra pot. She started to fry the onions and bacon, next came the tomatoes. She put in a bit of broth and cream plus seasoning and a few herbs from the patio. Spaghetti and broccoli where ready at the same time. Peas, noodles and broccoli went into the pan with the rest of the already made food. After 20 minutes her lunch was ready. She checked on Peter again but he was out like a light. She put a small pillow under the small of his back which relieved his ribs while he slept.

She had her first few bites when the door bell rang. Lina groaned and opened. “Ja?”, probably just the post man.

But no. Definitely not the post man. “Lina Bühler?”, it was Tony Stark saying her name with a funny accent.

“Yes. Tony Stark I presume?”, she gave him a tired smile.

“You presume right. I hope you didn't loose the kid.”, he spied into the hallway hoping to find Peter somewhere.

“Peter's asleep on the couch.”, she heard a car door being shut and looked outside finding a woman with red hair coming closer to the door. “You brought Miss Potts?”, everyone knew Pepper because everyone knew she was in charge. Without her Stark Industries would be a burning mess. Lina remembered reading quiet a few articles about the woman. Pictures really don't do her justice, she noticed. 

“Believe me, he wouldn't get far without me.”, Pepper commented and Lina snickered. 

“Come in. It's too cold out here.”, they put their shoes on the rack and Lina waved them in the kitchen. 

Tony saw Peter on the couch and immediately went over to him. Pepper watched her fiance with a loving gaze. _He's gonna be a great father_ , she thought and sat down opposite of Lina who placed a pot of coffee in front of her smiling softly. “It's been a long flight. And looking at the time probably a short night.”, Lina presumed and Pepper thanked her.

“Yes, well Tony wanted to go the second you ended the call with him. I packed a few essentials and called May, Peter's aunt, and booked a rental car. He traced your call by the way, I hope you're not too upset about it.”, she smiled nervously.

“I thought so. It's okay. He's probably not the only one who does but at least he has good intentions.”, it really didn't came as a surprise. “Do you wanna eat something too?”, she gestured at her lunch.

“God yes, I think my last meal was dinner last night.”, food was the last marker on Pepper's list when they started their trip and she just realized how hungry she actually was.

Lina got her a plate and utensils. And Pepper tried her first bite. Lina was a bit nervous because she always ever cooked for herself and never had a lot of people to try it except for her friends. They loved her food, but still.

“Did you make it yourself? This is really good.”, Pepper commented. She rarely had homemade food because there was usually no time and Pepper was only that much better at cooking then Tony as far as burning the food went. Pepper chuckled at the thought.

“Thanks. I usually just cook for my friends. It's something really soothing. You can basically do whatever you want when you're bored and wanna be creative. Or just follow the recipe when you need something therapeutic to take your mind somewhere else but still don't really have the head to do something on your own. That probably doesn't make any kind of sense. It's just what it is to me. But I'm also extremely tired so who knows what I'm saying. I always ramble when I'm tired.”, and as if right on cue Lina had to yawn.

“I get that. When Tony gets tired he starts talking random stuff too. It's oddly endearing though. I just get obnoxiously clingy and usually fall asleep instantly so I'm not annoying all that long. Speaking of sleeping.”, Pepper changed the subject mainly because it made her kind of tired. “Thank you for looking after Peter. Didn't you miss school or something? I'm sure your parents weren't all that thrilled you took him in.”, Lina was much younger than Pepper expected.

Lina chuckled nervously. “I- mh... well my parents aren't all that present to be honest. They have to travel a lot for work and they're kind of never really home. They usually took me with them but I was tired of it. I've never been to the same school for more than five months. I have actual friends here. It's great. As for school, well a lot of teachers have disappeared and we have school online until further notice. I just have to send in all my work every two days and that's it. But hey, Peter's pretty cool. Even though I believe being injured and all made him more quiet than he usually would be.”, Lina guessed and guessed right apparently. 

“He's quite the talker normally, that's true. I can't remember a moment he didn't talk like a waterfall. Only when he worked on his suit or something, whatever else they are working on in Tony's lab.”, she looked over to the two and found Peter sitting on the bed with a sleepy smile on his face. Tony was next to him looking as he was fuzzing all over the boy. It reminded Pepper of the rare occasion of herself being sick and Tony not knowing what to do and wanting to do everything. It was quite a sight and pretty funny. They got up and came over to the table.

“Hey Pepper.”, Peter greeted the woman with a hug.

“Hi sweety. God Peter, you look awful.”, she gingerly caressed his cheek not wanting to hurt him.

“I fell out of the sky. It would be much worse if I wasn't be so banged up. I think at least.”, his bruising looked much better. It healed pretty fast, Lina had to confess. His lip cut pretty much disappeared and his black eye was already in it's yellow stage.

“Still not a great sight kid.”, Tony commented slinging an arm around the boys shoulder.

Peter flinched. “Ouch! It's inflamed Mr. Stark.”, he said quickly, taking the glass of water Lina gave him. 

“I'm so sorry! I didn't wanna hurt you Pete.”, Tony apologized as if he accidentally drove over Peter's pet.

“It's okay Mr. Stark. I'm fine. And I will be okay in no time.”, he tried to reassure the man. It did help.

Line held plates with food out to both of them. “Sorry if it's cold but you took a little while over there.”, she gestured to the couch. “But Peter you need to eat something in case you need another ibuprofen.”, Peter groaned.

“I don't like painkillers.”, he pouted and took the plate. After some bites he said, “This is really good food.”, still pouting. Pepper and Lina chuckled over the boy's antics.

“Thanks.”, Lina smiled happily. She yawned again. “I'm gonna go sleep a little. Just put the dishes in the sink, please. Pills are still up their.”, she told Peter, gesturing to the cupboard on the left. “Ice your ribs and head, it'll heal faster. Take breaks and don't ice longer than an hour. Don't forget the towel around it. Bathroom's the third on the left. My rooms upstairs and has my name on it if you need anything or something happens. Get me if Peter gets worse or has unusual pain or something. Otherwise I'll be back in like 2 hours or something.”, she almost whispered the last part and quickly went upstairs, stripped out of her clothing and threw on her shorts and black shirt. Lina could only just put on a two hour alarm before she fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm German btw. I don't know if you might have catched it. With this information also comes my sicerest apology in case of any spelling and grammar errors. While editing there's some swedish thriller running in the backround on mute while I listen to The Lonly Island. Useless information but whatever.
> 
> Next chapter is when the real stuff happens so look forward to it! 
> 
> Thanks for reading and put your thoughts and critics in the comments, please! xx


	6. Cherry, suit and panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Anxiety/Panic attacks
> 
> Peter experiences his first panic and both Tony and Pepper have very helpful thoughts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WATCHED ENDGAME TODAY!!! BUT I WON'T SPOIL ANYTHING  
> i have a lot of emotions and thoughts though and while i'm editing Iron Man 1 is running in the background. 
> 
> Also my cat is sleeping in the weirdest positions lol
> 
> I don't know what else to say but: hope you'll be prepared for endgame with tissues! xx

“She's really nice.”, Pepper said when Lina had left the room to go to sleep.

“Her food's good but we still have to put away the dishes ourself.”, Tony commented and Pepper slapped his chest. “Ouch?! Honey, that was a joke. At home I put my dishes away too.”, he rubbed his chest without a housing for nano particles on it.

“She really is great. Lina just let me in and treated me without asking. These kind of genuinely nice people are really rare nowadays. Actually I can't really comment on it because I'm just as old as her.”, Peter started to talk more. His spidey powers finally started to kick in better. The medicine probably did it's part too.

“Do you know how old she actually is? She's so small.”, this time it was Tony.

“Not that you're any taller but I actually don't know. She commented on me looking not much older as she is though. So I guess around 16.”, Peter shrugged while he explained.

“Her parents are not even here. Bummer, because they really seem to miss out there.”, Pepper complained and took all of their dishes to put them in the sink. “How are you feeling Peter?”, she wanted to know. He sounded better than on the phone.

“I'm much better. My headache's almost completely gone and my shoulder doesn't burn as bad anymore.”, he nodded along. “My ribs are still pretty bad though. They're cracked and bruised and I'm not supposed to sit and walk a lot or move in general.”, he explained to the two adults.

“Then go and lay down again.”, Tony pointed at the couch. “I don't want you to be more hurt than you already are.”, he left no space for arguing.

“Ugh. Fine!”, Peter huffed exaggeratedly.

They didn't do a lot of other stuff for the next two hours. Pepper and Tony tried to get their conversation topic to Peter's fall (to earth) but he always deflected, not wanting to talk about it right now. Tony logged in their Netflix account and they watched The Life of Brian after fighting over the choice for 20 minutes.

When Lina heard the theme song of _Criminal Minds_ she knew she had to get up. Blindly reaching for her phone she turned it off. She cracked her eyes open slowly and yawned.

“Don't fall asleep again.”, she mutter to herself and took her headphones from next to her bed. A random playlist started and Lina got more and more awake. She swung her legs out of bed and stretched her arms over her head. Some bones cracked and Lina scrunched her face a little at the sound. She felt better though. 

Suddenly there was something running around her legs. Lina shrieked and looked down only to realize it was her cat Cherry. She was a little red tiger with a white belly, white paws and white bib which continued over her chin up to her nose. “Hi Cherry.”, she got a meow back and bummed her head against Lina's knee again. She took her in her arms and scratched her while starting to walk downstairs. “I'm so sorry baby, I totally forgot about you over everything going on in the last hours.”, Lina cooed at the feline who nuzzled against the girl's cheek purring at her lovingly. 

Lina was still in her pjs when she came into the kitchen and almost got a heart attack when she saw people on the couch discussing something. “OH MY GOD?!”, Lina yelled and Cherry strung from her arms and yanked Lina's headphones down with her. 

The three on the couch looked over at the girl just as surprised about the outburst. Lina held a hand over her heart. “Sorry. For a second there I forgot I wasn't alone.”, she put on the kettle. “Anyone else want some tea?”, she asked and was confused when Peter almost couldn't hold back a laugh, Tony had a smirk on his face and Pepper just returned to watching the movie after giving her an amused look. “Okay what is this?”, she pointed at Peter's face. 

“Your pants.”, Peter smirked. 

She looked down. “Oh yeah, great. This is fantastic. Thanks. Hey you should thank me.”, she pointed at Tony. “Because I bring you money even if you really don't need it.”, Lina looked down at her Iron Man shorts. 

“Actually the money the Avengers get from their merch goes into a fund for social projects and organizations. So thank you for supporting children's hospices, UNICEF, the Trevor Project and many more.”, he summed up and nodded at Lina. 

“Wow, that actually sounds pretty amazing and like a lot of money for organizations. I'm gonna buy more of your guys stuff.”, Lina nodded like Toy and went to brew her tea. “What about the tea now?”, she asked again. 

“I'd take one, thank you.”, Pepper smiled. 

“Me too.”, Peter and Tony said at the same time. So Lina made tea and threw an ice pack in Peter's hands who caught it easily. He sighed happily when he felt the cold against his eye. 

“Did you put on the balm too?”, she asked the boy while bringing over the tea. 

“Yes, while you were sleeping.”, he took the mug. “Thanks.” 

“Good. So.”, she sat down in her armchair. “How long do you wanna stay? If you wanna stay at all that is. But seven or eight hours flying wouldn't be all that great for you just now.”, she looked at Peter. “You should at least wait another day with your concussion. Otherwise it would probably involve a lot of vomiting and worse headaches.”, Peter scrunched up his face at her explanation. 

“Yeah, no. We're staying another night. Shotgun on the couch though because it's really that comfortable.”, he told Lina with an impressed face. 

“I know right.”, she laughed. 

“Are there good hotels around here or something?”, Pepper asked because apparently they are gonna stay for a night. Without a _where_ though, it was gonna be hard. 

“What? No. You're gonna stay here. The guest bedroom upstairs is freshly made, new color and everything. I would've let him stay there.”, she pointed at Peter. “But he could barely walk, much rather get up any stairs.” 

“Hey!”, Peter felt attacked. 

“What? You're gonna be just fine. Maybe you need some milk.”, Lina commented. 

Pepper and Tony were both confused. _Milk?_

Peter on the other hand thought it was hilarious. “Oh my god, you watch vines?”, he was totally excited. 

“Duh. It's like my third favorite way to pass time. That, Netflix and writing.”, she explained. 

“I am shooketh.”, Peter commented and Lina burst out laughing. Pepper and Tony just shook their heads not really knowing what to do about the situation. 

“Okay you can stop with your secret language now.”, Tony struck in and both teenagers had to laugh again. 

“Oh before I forget.”, Lina jumped up from the couch and ran out only to come back after a few seconds with a box handing it to Peter. “It's your suit. I – It does not look good.”, she explained in a sad voice. 

Peter opened it and knew she was not kidding. Everything was torn and most of the stuff broken in pieces. He didn't really remember taking it off last night. His mind went a mile per minute trying to figure out what to do with it. “Maybe you can frame it. You know, put it in your room or whatever, to remind you what it means to fight or show you that you're a survivor. Or only that you had the strength to safe the universe or whatever positive thing you see when you look at it.”, Lina couldn't imagine what it must've felt like for Peter or Tony in that matter, but happenings – especially as severe as this one – change you. Not necessarily in a bad way but in a ever lasting way. What she knew for sure though, was the fact that it meant something. And a lot. It meant everything Peter felt when he saw the suit and remembered parts of the fight. After all he's just as much of a human Lina was or Pepper or Tony. 

Peter still hasn't said anything. Lina felt guilty now though. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. It was a stupid idea and -”, but the boy broke her off. 

“No, no, no. It's okay. I think – I think I know what I'm gonna do with it.”, he looked up at Pepper, eyes glistening a little. “The showroom in the compound.”, Peter said and the woman nodded. “Do you think you could make arrangements to make it bigger? You know, maybe do another exhibition. I mean we all got damaged. The whole universe even. It's something we should show the world too. That – that we fail just like everybody else because we needed to loose before we could win.”, the desperation in his voice was palpable during his speech. 

No one spoke or moved for the next few minutes until Peter got up and bolted. He felt his chest tightening and his breathing pick up. With his heart pounding in his ears he stumbled through the strange house trying to find some familiarity he needed so desperately right now. But there was nothing. Nothing he knew. Nothing he could do to prevent the thing that happened. He was hyperventilating by now and pressed his back against the next wall he found, trying not to faint. Slowly he slid down onto the ground. 

_“Pete.”_ , it sounded far away. 

_“Peter.”_ , it was still blurry. 

“Peter, look at me.”, Mr. Stark sat in front of him hands on Peter's shoulders trying to get his attention. 

Hazy eyes looked at the man. “Focus on my voice okay? Can you nod?”, he asked showcasing the movement. 

Peter did nod but his expression was still fearful, confused and a lot of other things Tony couldn't quite place just now. 

“Can you tell me three things you can hear?”, Tony tried a new technique for solving panic attacks which works very well for himself. 

“My heart.”, Peter croaked out. “your-your breathing a-and birds.”, he could clearly hear the blackbirds singing outside. His voice wavered and the boy was shaking. 

“Now three things you can feel.”, Peter's breathing got less elaborate. 

He stretched out his fingers and he could feel the fog covering his brain slowly dissipating. “The carpet floor.”, he swallowed. “the wall”, he was pressed against. And “the warmth of your hands.”, which were sat on his shoulders and calmed him down an extra amount if he was honest. 

“Very good.”, Tony smiled. “The last one are three things you can see.”, since Peter had his eyes closed and head bowed the whole time he slowly picked it up and squinted. 

“Yellow walls”, he spied over Tony' shoulder. “a pride flag”, he sounded a bit surprised not expecting to see one. Wait that's Lina's room. He's been in here before. The tiny bit of familiarity put his mind more into perspective. “and you have a stain on your tie.”, he smirked tiredly at Mr. Stark. 

Tony frowned. “Fantastic.”, he grumbled and got up. “You seem to be fine again.”, he got up, holding out a hand for Peter. “Still, lets sit down there.”, he gestured to a small sofa to their left. 

“Oh, no Mr. Stark I'm fine. I swear. What ever you did it helped.”, Peter tried to reassure the man not feeling like talking about feelings which was inevitably going to happen. He knew that for sure. 

“Yes kid. We are gonna do this. No sit your butt down here.”, reluctantly the boy sat on the, again surprisingly comfortable, sofa. 

“Why is every kind of padded furniture comfortable in this house?”, Peter thought out loud. “You should get something like that for the compound instead the designer stuff you have. It looks great but feels like sitting on planks.”, he suggests. 

“Really? This is your biggest problem? Also since when do you have an issue with my disposal?”, he was definitely offended by the comment. 

“It's not just me.”, Peter defended himself holding up his hands. “But that's not what you wanted to talk about.”, he got more serious. 

“True.”, Tony huffed and tried to find the right words. Finally he sighed. “Listen kid, you went through a very traumatic experience. You-you literally died in my arms.”, both winced a little at the harshness of the statement and it's reality. “You will have panic attacks and you will have nightmares.”, he knew Peter was a smart kid and probably knew it on his own but it's still better to confirm someones suspicions. “It's your brain's coping mechanism to work through what you experienced. It's normal and nothing to be ashamed off. You're gonna need help though. Don't push people away and play cool as if nothing is going on. It might work for a while. But in the long shot, it brings more pain than good. If you push it away you will loose something of yourself or someone involuntarily. If you don't want a therapist you should at least talk to someone. May, Ned, MJ, Pepper, me. Go to a priest, whatever makes you the most comfortable, just don't talk to Banner.”, remembering his failed attempt of talking to the doctor. “But you need to know you're not alone and that it's okay to ask for help. I had to learn it the hard way and almost lost what I value most in life.”, he still had dreams about Pepper falling down at the oil rig (it was an oil rig for me) straight into the fire. In the dreams she usually doesn't just reappear though, all burning and bad-ass. It reminds Tony how short life can be and how fast it can end. 

Peter was silent, taking in what Mr. Stark just told him. He knew what he was talking about and Peter knew Mr. Stark had first hand experience even before the snap. It made Peter feel safer, less alien and as if no one could ever understand what he went through. So Peter did the only thing he could think off and surged forward pulling Tony into a hug. 

He ignored the pain in his shoulder and ribs and really everywhere else. “Thank you, Mr. Stark.” 

“It's okay kid. It's okay.”, he hugged him back. 

Downstairs Lina watched the door concerned. “Do you think they're okay?”, looking at Pepper who wore an equally worried expression. 

“I – I don't know. I never saw Peter act like this before but I'm sure Tony can bring him down. They have a special connection.”, she sounded a little uncertain though due to the unfamiliar situation. 

“Ugh, this is all my fault. I'm so sorry! I really didn't want this to happen.”, Lina felt extremely guilty as if it was her fault Peter got an attack. Technically it was since it was triggered by the suit and the memories that came the sight of it. 

“It's not your fault some mad man killed half of the universe. Peter gets his symptoms because of him, not you.”, Pepper told her. She had to learn the lesson of not blaming herself for Tony's anxiety attacks on her own. Sometimes she triggered him with the most mundane things like the cutting specific food or talking about anything relating fire such include the fire department or their own fireplace. 

“But I triggered it.”, Lina hated hurting people even if it's by accident. 

“Still. Triggers can be anywhere and everywhere. Anyone and everything can trigger Peter from now on as long as his brain makes a connection between the trigger and the trauma. It all happens unconscious and no one can do anything against it.”, living with Tony's PTSD taught Pepper a lot, especially how to get people calm. Lina wasn't freaking out on the outside but her brain was seething. Cold, hard facts were one of the best ways to calm Tony down and it seemed to work for Lina too. 

“Just remember that you don't do it on purpose.”, she told Lina as one last advice and turned to her phone which just started ringing. “Excuse me.”, Pepper left the room to take the call. 

Lina sighed and sat down in her armchair. Ms. Potts was right. It made so much sense and honestly Lina knew all of this herself. But knowing something and actually experiencing it are two very different things. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was that? Felt it like an accurate describtion or should I go more into detail?
> 
> Also I put the vine reference in there because i love vine and still watch compilations daily. Hope someone will make some for after endgame. Maybe I'll put in more references but ptsd does not always make the greatest set up.
> 
> Make good choises! And put your critique in the comments! xx
> 
> PS: i always talk in english with my cat for whatever reason. In case you're wondering why Lina's not talking german to Cherry. I didn't even realize it when i wrote the scene but my brother asked me when he read over my soulder


	7. love and goceries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grocery shopping and talks about old dudes and snap aftermath in the world. Also talk about Peter's healing factor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: BRIEF TALK ABOUT SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION
> 
> This is just me coping with endgame and my math final. That's also the reason I posted so random the last weeks. I'm not all that happy with the chapter and honestly my mind was somewhere else while i wrote it. I have my last exam on thursday and after that i'm free of everything for now.
> 
> Love you guys xx

Peter and Tony came back into the living room some ten minutes later. They met Pepper on their way down only to be shooed away. Apparently some stupid shareholders she has to deal with on the phone. It annoyed Tony to no end, how most men in management still don't see Pepper as equal even though she is clearly more qualified than most of them. 

Pepper had to deal with a lot of unnecessary questions regarding her 'incapability' almost on a daily bases since only little of the old white men trust her in any kind of way. She planned more thoroughly and considered more very realistic consequences than most of them before making decisions which was unsettling to many other CEOs. By doing a better job Pepper looses a lot of respect from others. Tony didn't grasp the concept but he realized Pepper stopped caring for what other people thought about her a long time ago and she can kick all of these old dudes asses whenever she wanted.

In the living room they found Lina on her armchair reading something on her phone with Cherry in her lap. When she heard the door opening she looked up giving Peter a tight smile. “Better?”, she asked.

“Much.”, he gave her a genuine smile back and Lina felt her tense back loosen a little and the guilt didn't ripple her all that much anymore. Then his face scrunched up though. “Can you maybe check my ribs. I moved a little too hectic I think.”, Lina made a hand motion for the boy to go to the couch.

Tony watched them from the side. “Shouldn't we call a doctor or something.”, he sounded anxious again.

“Relax, I want to take a look first. The fixation tape probably just moved out of place and his movements strained the ribs. A little ice and some redressing and tada. No need for a doctor in that case.”, she explained to Mr. Stark while Peter discarded his shirt and Lina started to work. “Does anything else hurt or hurt more than before?”, but Peter shook his head. “Very good.”, and then, “See”, she was speaking to Tony. “The tape is out of place like I told you. I'm gonna take it off and check under it and just put it on again. And since this is the good elastic stuff I don't even have to take new bandages.”, _ergo her own bandages_. That seemed to be something only Lina could be happy about. She took off the tape and hissed. “You're in the purple/green stage which means you are almost recovered but it looks the worst.”, she started to feel around the bruised area. “Tell me where it hurts differently than before.”

Peter did as he was told and Lina found out he really just strained something a little. “See, exactly like I told you.”, Lina confirmed to Tony in a rather calming voice. “It's not that big of a deal but he does need ice packs. They are in the freezer and towels in the cupboard opposite the fridge.”, Tony immediately made his way to the refrigerator to gather all the items.

While Tony was occupied Lina redressed Peter who felt a little better with the knowledge of not being even more injured. But Lina still had a question. When Mr. Stark came back handing Peter the ice pack, she decided to ask.

“Why do you heal so fast?”, she looked at Peter.

“What?... Why?”, he chuckled nervously. 

“Well you progressed to a healing stadium in 12 hours that other people reach in 12 days.”, as if that was hard to observe. (round about 12 days. I'm not a medical professional.)

Lina guessed it had something to do with him being Spider-Man but she couldn't say for sure, so she asked.

Tony saw Peter was too nervous to answer even though the girl knew he was Spider-Man, so he opted to answer Lina's question instead. “Peter here, has a healing factor which is part of his powers. Light wounds like scraps disappear pretty much right away but we didn't really know how far his powers go since there never has been much more than scratches and his body is more resistant than usual people's. But he seems to be healing harder injuries faster too. Unfortunately we don't know more about it at this point than you though.”, the man explained to the girl who listened to every word with a fascinated look on her face.

Pepper came back with a stressed out sigh when Lina replied. “That is so cool. Wow, you have to find out how your genetics changed like they did. Maybe you could use the knowledge to help the medical field. It would preserve a lot of pain and would make the doctor's, nurse's and even my job much easier.”, Lina had no clue as to how they could do it since she had no idea about science in the first place except for the human body and bit of chemistry. Her field were languages.

“That would be great! Mr. Stark can we test around a little?”, Peter was very much up to it.

“Kid, you're not even fully healed and seem overly excited about the idea to get severely injured again. I'm very much not in favor of this idea.”, Tony dismissed him pretty fast.

“I don't like it either and I don't think May will be up for it in any kind of way.”, Pepper brushed in coming up next to Tony who circled his arm around her waist and kissed her temple.

“Are you okay?”, he asked her quietly. She looked too unnerved after the phone call for his liking.

“I'm fine. Don't worry. Just some annoying old man. Nothing I can't handle.”, she smirked and gave Tony a quick peck.

They just looked at each other lovingly for a little and didn't hear the two teenagers talking.

“Naww, they are so cute.”, Lina said. You could not overlook the love these to held for each other.

“I know.”, Peter cooed. “They zone out like this more often than you might think. Sometimes it's annoying but it's sweet at the same time. Okay that didn't really make any sense but that's how it is.”, the boy explained wrinkling his forehead over his own logic.

“It makes sense, don't worry.”, she waved off his concerns. Then Lina changed the topic. “I have to go shopping today because there's not enough here for even me, let alone three more people. So tell me what you want and how much and whatever.”, she made a generalizing movement with her hands. 

“Can I come with you? I really wanna see what your supermarkets look like.”, his eyes beamed.

“Whatever floats your boat.”, she chuckled a little confused.

“When you go shopping can you bring me some kale?”, Tony interrupted and both teenager's jumped a little when there was suddenly noise out of nowhere.

“Irr... kale? That's disgusting but since it's the end of fall you are in luck and I can actually get fresh kale. But seriously, why do you want kale? Do you wanna impress Ms. Potts?”, because kale is just over all the grossessed thing in the western hemisphere. 

“God no, kale is in fact disgusting. I don't like it either. He's not allowed to kiss me when he ate it or drank one of his smoothie thingies.”, Pepper quickly pulled herself out of the affair.

“That stuff is healthy okay! It's good for your blood because of the amount of iron in it and has a lot of vitamin C and A which is good for your eyes and immune system.”, he argued pretty well.

Everyone was silent until Peter broke. “Still gross.”, he mumbled and he and Lina burst out laughing. Peter quickly realized it was a bad idea when is ribs felt as if they might pierce through him. “Au, au, au.”, he held his side still wheezing a little. 

“Careful, you shouldn't make jokes. Or at least not laugh about them. You still gonna feel that in a few weeks. I'm sorry.”, they both got themselves under control though and stopped laughing.

Tony looked smug, concerned and annoyed at the same time. _Wow, that is definitely talent_ , Lina thought.

“But Peter there's too much walking involved into shopping. We have to make stops at at least three shops.”, Lina told him and Peter's face immediately fell.

“Oh come on. I'm healing faster than anyone else. It shouldn't be a problem, right?”, the boy tried to counter.  
“Nope, not a chance. I do not advise it and the doctor didn't either. Stay down and get some rest. You'll heal faster.”, hen she had an idea. “The faster you heal the faster you can swing around again.”, she offered and Peter knew he couldn't go against her argument.

“Fine...”, he muttered and let his head hang in defeat.

“I'll come with you.”, it was Pepper. “I know what both of them like, however questionable their choices are.”, she explained.

“Fantastic.”, Lina commented. “Don't hurt yourself while we're gone.”, she pointed at Peter. “My number is the first in the phone book of the phone. Just press the book icon on it. Germany's 911 is 112 by the way. Just in case.”, the explained.

“Can I make some calls?”, Peter asked back.

“You can take my phone.”, Tony offered and Peter who smiled warmly at him.

“Thank you.”, then he turned to Lina. “Can you bring me candy like a lot of it.”

“No! No candy. You are like a 5 year old when you eat sugar!”, Tony quickly pronounced and dismissed his idea.

“Tony, he's hurt and can't do more than go to bathroom and back to bed. I'll keep it in range okay? Let the boy have some candy.”, Pepper reassured her fiance.

Tony sighed. “Okay, you can have a little.”, he told Peter who smiled triumphing. 

“Fine, we got kale and candy. Anything else we _need_ to buy?”, but both males shook their heads. “Great. But maybe you should dress in something more... casual?”, Lina suggested to Pepper.

The woman looked down on herself. She still wore her wood green two piece costume she came in. “I look a little out of place do I?”

“A little bit, yes.”, the girl confirmed. 

“I'm gonna get the baggage!”, Tony volunteered and quickly left through the patio and came back not even a minute later with two big bags.

“How much luggage do you need for a few days?”, Lina was staggered.

“We neither knew the weather nor how long we're gonna stay so better too much than too little, I thought.”, Pepper explained. 

Lina nodded. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”, she admitted. “Your room is upstairs the third door on the left. The bath room is opposite of it.”, the girl explained and Tony and Pepper retrieved to their room.

“Can you bring me some typical German candy?”, Peter asked Lina very excitedly.

“Of course.”, Lina laughed. “Is there some kind of bread you don't like? Or a kind of roll you want?”, they will make a stop at the bakery.

“Ahm... I don't know, I eat everything. I do like double wheat though which is actually really unhealthy. (I don't know if that is actually a kind of bread. I just feel as if I read it somewhere before.)”, he explained but he only saw confusion on Lina's face.

“Yeah, no, I don't know what you mean. We have very different understanding of types of breads. I'm just gonna bring something.”, she decided which Peter seemed to fine with too. 

Tony and Pepper came back again, Pepper wearing black jeans, a pale blue blouse and her hair down. “We can go.”, she announced.

“Great. I'm gonna get a few bags and my wallet and we can move.”, Lina gathered her big backpack, a cooling bag and a cotton bag. She snatched three of Peter's ice packs and both put on their shoes.

“Bye!”, they yelled to Peter and Tony when they left.

“Store first.”, Lina announced and they started walking. “There we can get candy, fruits, vegetables, cereal or what every you can't buy in a farm store or the bakery.”, she explained. “Oh and we have to go to the drug store.”, she added before they left Lina's street to walk further into the center of the town.

“We could've just taken the car, you know.”, Pepper threw in when they where at the end of the street.

“Yeah but I don't have a car and walking is healthy.”, it's true. Lina hasn't relied on a car since years now. Everything was in reach by foot or bike. Public transportation isn't all that terrible by now. A few years ago she would've been screwed if she missed a bus. Now she only has to wait for 45 minute instead of 3 or 4 hours.

“It seems so much calmer here.”, Pepper noted. “Even after the … New York was still bustling and hasty but with a more depressive undertone.”, The Snap changed people. You couldn't live a normal life anymore because the snap's consequences were everywhere. It was embodied by missing people, closed stores, rotting houses and memorials in every city.

“Yeah, it's never been the same. But life out here _is_ calmer.”, Lina emphasized. “Even though it's only been a few months we feel the change, especially out here since only a few people less can have sometimes catastrophic consequences. Our doctor disappeared and we still don't have a replacement. The closest doctor is the hospital which is a 20 minute bus drive. But many of our elderly people have a hard time even getting out of the house. Home visits were the norm but now it's complicated. We had a nauseating amount of deaths in the last few months.”, Lina's voice was low and sounded detached. 

They were quite for a moment. The changes the world took on were tremendous and unimaginable. It felt as if someone put a curtain of guilt over the remaining people. Sadness and grief are heavy on everybody's chest. It's difficult to put the current atmosphere into words. Even now with folks coming back to earth, everything still felt wrong almost alien.

“We have people publicly jumping of bridges and roofs in extreme amounts in New York.”, Pepper whispered into the silence. There were barely three people on the street by now.

“Yeah, depression took over on many. My neighbors almost never talk to each other anymore. Some friends had to move to the other side of the country because their parents disappeared and they had to live with relatives.”, Lina sighed.

The walk took a darker turn than they thought but Lina had to admit her village turned into a ghost town over the months. She hasn't even realized it fully until now that she thought about it further. You don't notice change when it happens right in front of you.

“Hopefully it'll get better now that people are coming back.”, Pepper said glancing at the sky where she caught a ray of sunshine breaking through the cloudy sky.

“I think so.”, Lina smiled optimistically. And she really did because she missed her friends and going to school. She never thought she'd admit missing school but she did. Because school's loud, alive and colorful. It's everything her current life situation couldn't provide no matter where she'd go in the world.

The sun came through a little more and both girls felt the rays warming up their faces. It brought smiles to each of them. Even the sun seemed to have occurred less in the last months. But there was an energy in the air that felt vivid, as if happiness wasn't unreachable any longer.

“We're almost there.”, Lina broke the silence pointing at a yellow and blue sign saying _Edeka_. A store came in sight with a parking lot in the front. It looked tiny in comparison to supermarkets in the US.

“Do they have an underground story?”, Pepper asked because this can't be all right?

“No”, Lina chuckled. “This is not America and certainly not New York. This is more than enough for our little town believe me. But it's very cute that you seem to worry about it.”, the girl still laughed while getting a cart.

“This is definitely not like the malls I'm used to.”, Pepper contemplated when they walked in. It was more roomy than she thought but still little.

“Do you even go grocery shopping?”, Lina was curious.

“Not really. Clothes, yes. But groceries? Not so much. With Tony's special wishes it's usually easier to just purchase everything over the web and get it delivered to our doorstep.”, the woman explained while they reached the beginning, the fruit and vegetable aisle. “What do we need?”, Pepper sounded giddy. She was weirdly excited to something as mundane as grocery shopping. It was a nice change for once.

“I wish I would look forward to going to the store as much as you do.”, Lina snickered and held up a pack of mini cucumbers for show. “Take what you want and preferably the version with _Bio_ written on it.”, she gestured at the word on the paper package. “It means organic and tastes better.”

Pepper nodded in understanding and started to examine the row. She picked cherry tomatoes, the last celery pack and Tony's beloved kale. Since fruits and veggies were seasonal here, there wasn't as much variety as in other months. She spied something odd looking though.

“What is this?”, pointing at a purple and a white ball looking thing.

Lina was putting fennel and carrots in the cart when she turned to Pepper. “Cabbages.”, she answered matter-of-factly. “You can eat them raw with some vinegar dressing if you wanted. The purple ones you usually cook, with some apple if you like, and serve it with duck or whatever roast you make. And what you can do with the white one I'm sure you know.”, because even America knows “Sauerkraut.”.

“Really?”, Pepper answered in disbelieve. “This turns into sauerkraut?”, examining the cabbage a little closer.

“Well you have to ferment it for a while and heat it but yes, that's what sauerkraut is made off.”, Lina didn't know how to do it though. But she swore to herself she would try making it some day in her life.

Then Lina's phone rang. A New York number? “Hello?”

_“Hey Lina. I just wanted to ask if you could pack extra_ Eierplätzchen _maybe...?_ ”, it was Peter so this was probably Mr. Stark's phone number. Lina was really debating on saving it in her phone.

She smirked. “How much is _extra_? Only for here or do you wanna take some home with you?”, because honestly, she used to pack up all the candy when she still traveled with her parents.

_“For at home.”_ , he whispered probably not wanting Mr. Stark to hear it since he was against Peter having too much sugar.

“Okay.”, she whispered back but started talking in a normal tone again. “Is there anything else that came into your head I need to bring?”, because sometimes thoughts came late. So late that they come after and not during the tests (that's a randomly specific example since it happened to me in my exam this week so sorry if it comes over as odd).

_“Do you have bagels in Germany? Because I kinda feel like bagels right now.”_ , he offered her.

“Ehm... yeah I guess. Not always, so I can't promise anything but I'm gonna do my best.”, she said the last part wanna-be heroic.

She heard Peter snicker. _“Noice. Oh, May said hi and thank you again.”_ , he informed Lina.

“Aw, thank you. Your aunt is really sweet.”, Lina stated. The woman seemed to be a real angel. She kinda wished she had someone like her in her own family. But with the words of _Mick Jagger_ and _Dr. House_ : You can't always get what you want.

_“I know, she's the best. Well, I let you get back to the groceries. Remember the bagels!”_ , because priorities.

“I will.”, Lina laughed. “Bye.”, she got “bye” from Peter before they hung up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything felt incomplete and rushed in this chapter probably because it was written in a few hours. I'm not proud of it but you can't always get what you want.
> 
> I put a tiny B99 reference in here. If you caught it you're a good noodle and i'm very proud. My cat just slept on my legs the last three hours and they fell asleep... i literally can't get up from the couch and i really wanna change the channel on my tv because there's a heavy metal concert on and it's just not my type of music.
> 
> My distaste of kale might've been caughtable (is that even a word?) in this chapter too. 
> 
> Have a hopefully better day than mine xx


	8. more calls, guilt and a crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter calls May, Ned and MJ. Tony has issues and Peter has too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: SELF-DOUBT, TALK ABOUT PANICK ATTACKS & PAIN & SENSORY ISSUES
> 
> Ooopss.... and i'm late again... sorry for that
> 
> I'm really happy with this chapter though. the last one was so terrible i feel like having to apologize for it again. I'M SO SORRY!!!
> 
> Well anyways, I hope you have fun. There's some tiny little Stucky in here. Like one scentence. But also a chunk Pepperony because i need it and i'm sure some of you guys too. 
> 
> Anne xx

“Can I call May?”, Peter asked Mr. Stark a few minutes after Pepper and Lina left for the store. 

“Tell her I said hi.”, he told the boy smiling and left the room to give him privacy. 

Tony liked May Parker but he knew she was still wary of him. He understood why, since he was the guy who made her nephew go to Germany and letting him fight in the potentially fatal 'Modern Civil War' as the press titled it. And now he was in space and died because of Tony. He also lied to the woman from the beginning on, which doesn't go for an all that great impression. And now Tony didn't even safe Peter. He could do absolutely nothing for the boy to get better and his injuries are all his fault. If Tony had made Peter stay on earth nothing of his current state would be an issue.

Tony had the same thoughts running through his head since Peter disappeared in his arms. The grief, the guilt, the blame... 

When May called and told them Peter was safe, he cried for a good half an hour. Pepper wiped her own tears away while she comforted Tony. Both had tears of relief and happiness running down their faces. Pepper was still tired since it was almost 3.30am by now but Tony was hyper and could not sleep at all.

“Tony, you need sleep. Your body has to recover. Please put yourself before others for once.”, she asked of him with her hands stroking his cheek. She knew it was useless though. Pepper knew her fiance and he's not going to keep down now. In moments like this Pepper wished for 2010 Tony to be back. Because 2010 Tony was still egotistical, well more egotistical. Therefore he would put himself in the foreground and not others. He would still safe them but if he was this kaput he wouldn't hesitate to stop caring for the rest.

Tony sighed. “We both know I can't do that Pep.”, his eyes were bloodshot. He looked absolutely done but determined to get through with his plan. Even though Pepper wasn't sure if he even had one.

“I know.”, her smile was slightly pained and Tony felt something sting inside of him when he saw her expression. She kissed him and took his hands in hers. “I'm gonna make tea and you call for the jet but don't wake Happy, please. He doesn't have to suffer because of us.”

Pepper knew Tony would get the address of the person Peter was staying with in some way or another. She got up from the bed when Tony said, “I don't deserve you.”.

The sincerity in Tony's voice broke Pepper's heart. She went back to the bed and wiped a new tear from his face. “You do. I know you don't always believe it. But I'm gonna tell you until you do believe it.”, their faces were inches apart and Pepper looked him dead in the eye. “You, Tony Stark, deserve the whole world and more. And I love you so much. One of the reasons is your selflessness and that you would do everything for the people you love. I know you feel guilty. Why did he survive and I didn't? Why is his way so much harder than mine? Because he's just a kid, right?”, Tony only nodded. It baffled him how Pepper seems to be able to read his mind. “You couldn't safe him or the other half of the universe the first time but you brought them all back. Every single person, every child, every mother, father, sister, aunt, uncle. Every. Last. Loved one.”, her voice wavered slightly. “You helped beating this disgusting monster and got back half of the universe. And almost gave your life multiple times. Now you did it again. You almost died again and it took you more than one try, _but_ you won. And in the end it doesn't matter to anyone weather you made it in one attempt or two. It only matters that everyone is back. With all these people home again, the world can breathe once more and start to be optimistic like before. You deserve to be happy too. Especially you. You and the rest of the team. Clint got his family and Natasha back. Steve told me he and Bucky are gonna move to Brooklyn to settle down, finally. They might even be married before us.”, both had to laughed at the thought. They've been engaged way too long by now. “Hey. That was the first time you actually laughed since you came back.”, Pepper noticed and caressed Tony's brow.

“What if he's gonna hate me? I can't blame him for it. I shouldn't...”, but before Tony could spiral again Pepper cut him off.

“He won't. This boy loves you and you love him. You saved him. He's gonna be so proud of you guys. Let's just get to Peter so you can convince yourself.”, her smile calmed Tony and he finally nodded.

“Okay. Yeah, you – you're probably right. But since you're always right we can skip the 'probably'.”, he told her.

Pepper smirked. “Thanks babe.”, she pecked him on the lips and went to the kitchen to make tea. Tony couldn't suppress his own grin at his fiance's antics.

Tony was already dressed when Pepper came back up and put a mug in his hand. “For the nerves.”, it was also the tea that made Tony sleepy. Since they were at the compound the jet was only a few steps away. She just hoped Tony would sleep a little on the flight.

On the sofa, Peter looked for his aunt's contact in Mr. Stark's phone. He tapped on it when he finally found it and waited. And waited and waited and finally.

_“Peter?”_ , she sounded tired. It's around 8am in New York right now and she probably had a late shift last night.

“Yes, it's me May. Did I wake you?”, he was concerned. His aunt was constantly on the edge because of him and it made her sleep less and less, afraid of him getting hurt. And now he was hurt, oh god, how is he gonna do right with her? That was a problem for later though.

_“It's okay, Peter. What did the doctors say?”_ , hopefully nothing bad.

“The worst are my cracked ribs but it's already almost healed. Basically the only thing left is my concussion but that's almost gone too. We're going to spend the night and come home tomorrow.”, happiness echoed from his voice.

Peter heard his aunt sigh in relief. _“That's great Peter. I'm so grateful you're okay. Are you still in pain?”_ , because pain is always the worst however little the injury might be.

“Only when I move suddenly. But Lina gave me a lot of ice packs and she has high dosed painkillers if I should actually need any.”, he explained. “But I swear I'm not in pain right now.”, Peter reassured May.

_“I'm so glade, honey. Did Mr. Stark and Pepper arrive?”_ , when May met Pepper for the first time it astound her how Tony landed such an amazing woman. She was his complete opposite, all calm and collected. But that's probably why they worked so well. They balanced each other out. She immediately took a like to the woman. That's why they called each other by the first name. Tony and May were still on formal-name-basis. She didn't really trust him all that much and she knew Tony understood that, so he thankfully, didn't push it.

“They came a few hours ago. I... em... I – I had a panic attack.”, May didn't reply. Peter got anxious. “But I'm good now. Mr. Stark could calm me down. He also said it's probably going to happen more often in the next time... I just... wanted you to know so that when it happens it doesn't come completely unexpected.”, May was a nurse and he knew she handled her fair share of panic and anxiety attacks in her career but he also knew it was different when these things suddenly turn private.

May didn't say anything in the beginning. She didn't know what she could possibly say. Peter was okay though, she tried to tell herself. She could imagine Stark having experience in this kind of territory. She was glade he was with her nephew in that terrible hour. But it made Peter's damage even more real than it already felt. May knew from the beginning that she would probably not see Peter physically injured because of his healing factor and from Germany it was a pretty long way. But now Peter was even more mentally scarred than he was before. 

First the loss of his parents. Then he watched Ben die under his hands. And now this. He would be lucky if one day the events didn't mess with him anymore. But that scenario seemed rather unlikely. The mind is a tricky, unknown and unforgiving thing. It remembers every moment of your life, if you consciously realize or not. Your subconscious is more unrelenting than any other part when someone's whole life is considered. It interferes with your every thought, act and gesture. However you're reacting to something, smile or only take a step. Your subconscious is gonna have a hand in it.

It's a scary reality especially for traumatized people like Peter, Mr. Stark or really every other Avenger, May guessed. She wanted nothing but the best for Peter and right now he was far away from it. Again...

Peter was emotionally very mature though. He has worked through his troubles relatively healthy up until now. Letting himself cry, write, color – when his parents died – and talk with others about what happened to him, made coping for Peter easier than for many others. May knew Peter has a very emotional personality which comes in handy in these kinds of situations. He shouldn't be confronted with traumas as often as he is but May strongly hoped for Peter to keep this behavior up. 

Since Peter just told her he had a panic attack though, May knew he was gonna be okay. It was going to be a long way but she knew he could do it. He had the energy, the will and determination to get back his mental health.

“May?... Are you... are you, okay? Are you mad?”, Peter's fearful voice snapped the woman out of her thoughts.

_“What? No! No, of course not, Peter. I'm sorry if I gave you the impression. I just didn't really know how to react.”_ , she told the boy truthfully because when it's one thing Peter values, it's honesty.

“Yeah... I didn't really wanna tell you.”, he swallowed. “But I felt as if I had to. I know you're in a lot of stress because of me and I think... even if the news aren't great, you at least know what to prepare for. And you deserve to know how I feel because you raised me. You have to keep up with me all day 24/7 and the least I can show you is love and honesty.”, Peter rambled not realizing the effect it had on his aunt.

She listened to his incoherent talking with tears glistening on her cheeks. There's so much love in her for this boy, she couldn't express it in words. _“I love you Peter. I'm so glad you're feeling better sweety.”_ , her tears were evident in her voice.

“I love you too. I can't wait to see you again.”, his tears were happy ones. “You have to sleep a little more and I'm gonna call Ned and MJ real quick. Oh, and I'm gonna bring you something from Germany I think you're gonna enjoy.”, he knew May was gonna love the _Eierplätzchen_. He had to call Lina for that. 

_“I'm looking forward to that.”_ , May chuckled. _“I'm gonna see you tomorrow Peter. Tell Lina I said hi and thank you, again.”_ , she was excited to see her little – even though now he was big – boy again after months of him missing.

“I will. See you tomorrow.”, he smiled and they hung up.

Peter wiped away a tear and he went to get a glass of water from the kitchen. Mr. Stark retreated back into the room and sat down on the couch silently. Peter got him a glass too which he took gratefully.

“I just remembered something for Lina to bring. And I would like to call Ned and MJ if that's okay?”, he knew Mr. Stark would obviously say yes. But he still felt insecure when it came to asking for things. He never asked for anything. May and him didn't have a lot of money and when they couldn't afford something they would simply not get it. Peter also felt oddly greedy whenever he only thought of asking some one for something.

“And again. Of course. Kid you have to stop feeling bad about asking for something. It's okay to do so.”, he tried to encourage Peter but he had a harder time relating to Peter's problem. It had to do with money which he had plenty off and exactly that was the problem because Peter's issues came from having very little. He admired May for getting Peter and herself through with the little money they had. He offered help but he quickly learned it was not appreciated. They had their pride and they wouldn't just take charity because they didn't need it. May told him it was a nice offer but they were just fine without it. Of course he apologized and then let the topic fall quickly. He still bought Peter a new bag when he lost his on patrol and a shirt and pants here and there because they usually disappeared with the bags.

“M-hm...”, Peter looked at the phone and blushed. “Can you put on Brooklyn Nine-Nine?”, he requested. Because if Mr. Stark admitted it or not, he loved the show just as much as Peter himself.

“Ugh, again? You already watched every episode way too often. Do cops with ADHD, OCD and emotional issues not get boring at some point?”, the man asked while obeying the boy's request and put on the show.

Peter dialed Lina. _“Hello?”_ , she answered almost immediately.

“Hey Lina. I just wanted to ask if you could pack extra Eierplätzchen maybe...?”, these things are the bomb. Maybe Lina would send him a big package with them every year. Peter could send her a package of candy back.

_“How much is extra? Only for here or do you wanna take some home with you?”_ , was that a trick question?

“For at home.”, he whispered. Mr. Stark doesn't have to know how much Lina brings for me.

_“Okay.”_ , she whispered back but started talking in a normal tone again. _“Is there anything else that came into your head I need to bring?”_ , actually he does.

“Do you have bagels in Germany? Because I kinda feel like bagels right now.”,he hasn't had bagels in months. Usually he doesn't like them all that much because he prefers sandwiches but he really wants bagels.

_“Ehm... yeah I guess. Not always, so I can't promise anything but I'm gonna do my best.”_ , doesn't every supermarket have bagels?

He snickered. “Noice. Oh, May said hi and thank you again.”.

_“Aw, thank you. Your aunt is really sweet.”_ , he smiled at Lina's comment.

“I know, she's the best. Well, I let you get back to the groceries. Remember the bagels!”, he really wanted to talk to MJ and Ned.

_“I will.”_ , she laughed. They said good bye and Peter dialed the next number.

It was Ned. After the 6th ring the phone was answered. _“Mr. Stark? Oh my god, is Peter okay? Heonlygavemeyournumberforemergencies.IsPeterindangerordeadorhurt?”_ , Ned's answer came out rapid fire. 

“Hey, hey, hey. Ned, I'm okay. I'm not dead, okay? My whole body is a bit bummed but I'm fine.”, Peter reassured his best friend.

_“Peter? Oh god, I'm so glad you're okay. You eliminated the threat! You guys won. That is awesome dude! How was space? Is it awesome? It's probably awesome. Man, you have to tell me everything about it.”_ , my god, was this guy excited.

“Ned, calm down! I'm gonna tell you everything when I'm back. I just wanted to know if you're fine. I missed you, man.”, Peter said quietly.

_“I missed you too. My mom disappeared and I really wanted to talk to you but you weren't there. But she's back now. It was so crazy, she landed in Rio and came home a few hours ago.”_ , Peter was happy for his friend. He was always big on family and really loved his mom.

“That's great Ned. I'm really sorry I couldn't there for you. I was snapped too though. In case you're wondering, it wasn't all that terrible. It only felt like a few days rather than weeks. We weren't in hell or anything.”, he told Ned completely forgetting that Mr. Stark was I the room.

_“I'm so sorry Peter... It was really weird without so many people on earth. Pretty depressing actually. But lets talk about something else. When are you coming back? And where are you even?”_ , they would probably talk about it when he was back in New York.

“I'm in Germany again. But in a smaller town, a way smaller town. This girl took me in, Lina. She's so nice and helped me with my injuries and everything. She checked me over and stayed awake through the night only so she could check that I was okay. I got a bad concussion though so I can't fly back today. I'm gonna be back some time tomorrow.”, Peter was still baffled by Lina's concern and care taking.

He looked up and saw Mr. Stark left the room again. He did start B99 on his favorite episode though, Jimmy Jabs and Amy and Jake were just flirting outside the building in bicycle gear and fake pregnant. 

_“That is so awesome.”_ , Ned's voice turned an octave higher at the last word. 

“We have so much to talk about when I get back.”, Peter concluded already excited to see his best friend again.

_“Yes! Oh! My dad got me the Millennium Falcon. I started it already but it felt weird without you so I took the pieces apart again.”_ , Ned admitted and his heart broke a little for his friend. 

“We are definitely gonna do that. What a dream come true. This is gonna take us days to build.”, he tried to distract his best friend.

_“We could make a whole weekend out of it. You can sleep over and we can listen to trashy music while building it.”_ , the boy suggested.

“That sounds great man. I have to ask May but I'm sure she's cool with it.”, Peter could here a muffled voice from Ned's line.

_“Peter, I have to hang up. My parents wanna go to breakfast with me. They say hi by the way.”_ , Ned goes to breakfast with his parents every Sunday as a family tradition. Since his mom was gone for so long they probably wanna catch up with it now. 

“Thank you and have fun. Talk to you later. I love you, Ned.”, the words had a heavy depth. They usually didn't say these words to each other but with Peter gone and the fact that they haven't seen each other in such a long time, Peter felt the overwhelming need to tell Ned.

_“I love you too, Peter. See you later.”_ , they hung up and Peter could tell that Ned felt it too. They both knew they won't say the words often but maybe a little more now since they knew how the world felt without the other one in it.

Peter sighed and took a sip of his water. That became unexpectedly emotional. But Ned was his best friend so it made sense to Peter. He dialed the next number.

_“Michelle's phone.”_ , a high, little voice answered. 

Peter smiled instantly. “Hi Danny, it's Peter. Is your sister around?”, Daniel answered the phone, MJ's little brother. He was seven and the complete opposite of MJ character wise.

_“Chelly!”_ , the little boy screamed. Peter cringed at the volume and retracted the phone from his ear. _“Don't scream, it's only 8.30, dummy. Now give me my phone.”_ , that was obviously MJ. _“It's Peter.”_ , Danny said before Peter could hear him walk away.

_“Peter?”_ , MJ asked him unbelieving.

“I think this is the first time you didn't greet me with 'Loser'. Are you okay, MJ?”, his tone was teasing and he knew he was being unfair but Peter just felt oddly confident in that moment.

_“Fuck off, loser.”_ , Michelle laughed relieved. _“But seriously. I haven't seen you in months as I found out recently. I disappeared with the other people. But my reappearance was rather unspectacular. Only came from the other side of New York City.”_ , that explained why MJ was home already.

“Yeah, I was dusted too. I'm coming back tomorrow from Germany. Are you feeling okay? Did you get hurt when you landed?”, why was he the only one hurt? Ned's mom, Gloria, didn't seem to have gotten hurt either.

_“No, why? Are you hurt? Please don't tell me you did something stupid Parker.”_ , MJ was in distress.

“I'm just a little sore around the ribs and got a little bang on the head. I'm fine MJ.”, but there was something else. “I missed you MJ.”, and he did. Peter liked MJ but he didn't plan on telling her any time soon.

_“I missed you too, loser.”_ , there was a genuine smile to her voice. _“I'm glad you're okay.”_ , she told him in a calm, caring voice. It made Peter blush and MJ wasn't even in the room.

“Yeah, me too.”, he replied in an equally calm voice. “I mean that you are okay – and em... nothing... that nothing happened to you. But I'm also glad I'm not hurt – obviously... I just mean, I'm... glad.”, he concluded after stuttering through his speech and cringing at himself.

He heard MJ chuckle on the other end of the line. _“I know what you mean.”_ , then she sighed. _“Danny demands attention.”_ , dammit Danny! But maybe it's better before he starts to muddle his words and thoughts again. _“Good luck with your flight tomorrow.”_.

“Thanks and we have to meet up when I come back.”, Peter cleared his throat.

_“We should.”_ , MJ replied and both Peter and Michelle sighed when they heard Danny yelling for ' _Chelly!_ ' in the background. _“I have to go. Bye, Peter.”_ , she said good bye.

“See you MJ.”, they hung up.

Peter closed his eyes and exhaled audibly while letting his torso gently land on the sofa.

“You should tell her you like her.”, the boy jumped while feeling his heartbeat quicken and breathing fasten.

“YOU CAN'T DO THAT!”, Peter yelled at Mr. Stark who held his hands up displaying his innocents. What was that? Why didn't Peter feel when Mr. Stark reentered the room? And why didn't he feel him leaving in the first place? He became so unfamiliar with the feeling of people sneaking up on him during the last few years, he forgot what it felt like. His powers seem to be pretty weak still. It made Peter nervous and feeling unsafe in some way.

What if something tries to attack them and he can't warn anyone because his powers are still out? That couldn't happen. Stupid body! Why does it have to heal so slowly? He needs his powers and he new it. What if his senses never come back again? He wasn't over sensory, like he usually was. It's relieving especially with the concussion. But he barely felt that any longer anyways. There was another thought swirling around in his head though.

“Hey?”, Mr. Stark tapped his knee successfully cutting Peter out of his thought process. “What are you breaking you pretty little head over?”, there was no snark whatsoever in his voice and Peter was grateful and bummed about it at the same time. He missed Mr. Stark's sarcasm over his time... away. At the same time grateful though because he knew the man would listen to every word he said. To every thought his mind spit out however stupid and irrational it might be.

Sighing Peter sat up looking at his hands that he was wringing in his lap. The couch dipped when Mr. Stark sat down next to him. He saw a hand untangling his own and Peter gripped it without giving it too much thought.

“I don't have sensory issues and... I-I kind of like it...”, he opened and closed his mouth a few times before he started to talk again. “I mean that – I don't have to wear the mask just so I can compress sounds, light and the heat from the sun. The suit really helps but I still endure it whenever I'm not wearing it... I kept it from other people because no one can understand it but also because I don't wanna disappoint myself... if that makes sense?”, now Peter looked up at his mentor for the first time. “Do you know what it feels like?”, Tony saw Peter's eyes welling up. He only shook his head no and let Peter explain further. It didn't feel like it was his time to speak as of now.

Peter nodded and grabbed the phone next to him, turning on the flashlight and held it straight into Tony's face. “That's what sun feels like for me, visually. Physically it makes me regain energy but also gives me the feeling to boil when it's too warm. Summer is horrible!”, he announced with a cutting motion with his hand to highlight the absoluteness of the statement. With the phone away he took Mr. Stark's arm and a pen from the suit jacket he was wearing. Then he dragged the tip of the pen over the inside of the man's wrist. He did it in a tempo that made your skin left tingly and itchy at the same time. He saw Mr. Stark flinch a little at the motion. “Uncomfortable, right? That's what touch feels like for me up until 20 minutes after the actual touch. I did distance myself a little from hugging people. I was a much more touchy person before... the spider. But no one really questioned it since it happened when uncle Ben died.”, like a coping mechanism.

“Everything I hear usually sounds not that much louder than it does for an average person but when I get tired or my brain decides to concentrate on a specific sound, everything goes up to being something between two and almost ten times as loud. That's when I get 'migraines' and can't leave my blacked out room for at least 12 hours.”, Peter never told anyone the reason's he got 'migraines' since no one knew who he was in the beginning and then he just didn't wanna be a burden to anybody. It happened less with his self-made mask and even more less with Mr. Stark's mask later.

Tony listened to every word the boy told him. He didn't know how terrible the boy's condition usually was. Though he was sure when he would get a normal amount of sleep like he should, it wouldn't be as bad. But he worked too much, like himself. And got nightmares, like himself but never told anyone, like himself – well except for Pepper but she knew about them only because she witnessed most of them. Tony also knew these sensory issues would come up even more often now that Peter will probably develop PTSD. He swore to himself he would come up with a way to adapt his sensors in normal life and not just through the Spider-Man suit.

Next to him, Peter shook his head and snorted darkly. “The only good thing it gave me was knowing when something or someone came up to me. I was never surprised. I could prepare even if it was just for a second more time. The chance of me hurting myself or even dying fell so low. It's still relatively high given I swing through the air and stop criminals but I mean adjusted.”, he quickly rambled through an explanation. “But that one is gone.”, he wiped away an angry tear. “But so are the others too as far as I can tell. The only thing left at the moment is the healing factor but that is slowed down too.”, he took a deep breath and organized his thoughts before he started talking again.

“What I'm trying to say is that I'm happy my heightened senses are not there. And I can't stick against anything at the moment either. Everything that made me Spider-Man is gone. Even the suit and my webshooters are broken down to no recognition. I should feel bad about it but I'm-I'm relieved.”, Peter choked on a sob. “And I shouldn't feel like that. I mean wha-what kind of superhero, what kind of _Avenger_ would feel like this.”, tears ran down the boy's face quickly. “I'm s-so sor-sorry Mr. S-Stark.”, Peter was sobbing.

Tony enveloped the boy in his arms and pressed Peter again his chest carefully not to worsen any injuries. “Sh, sh, sh... It's okay Peter. It's okay.”, he let him cry because one, it was healthy and two, Peter wouldn't register one word of what he was telling him. While holding Peter he whispered reassurances and sweet nothings in his ear trying to calm his shaking body.

It took a while and when Peter's sobs finally turned into sniffles Tony realized the boy fell asleep due to emotional exhaustion. Peter had a death grip on his suit though so Tony decided to lay down with him. It broke Tony's heart to see his boy this broken. Peter, who laughed even when there was no reason to. Peter, who had the most optimistic personality. Peter, who was the sunshine of not only him but the entire compound. Now Tony had to hold his body, limb from a crying attack with swollen eyes, a red face and tear streaked features. He was probably gonna have a headache when he woke up again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Peter's senses probably aren't that extreme but I wanted that so i just wrote it in here. Also I'm sorry if my rambling nature came through in the longer passages.
> 
> I don't know what's wrong with my gut but something is not working well. I'm nauseous (did i spell that right?) every time i eat and at the moment i only eat fannel and mashed potatoes... this is terrible, i hope you are doing better than me right now.
> 
> Well, tell me your thoughts in the comments and have a great day. Beebo shall bless you xx
> 
> PS: maybe you can tell i love Brooklyn Nine-Nine a lot


	9. PLEASE READ

Hey fellas!

First of all I love all of you and I'm still surprised so many people read this stupid little story of mine. Okay it's not stupid but whatever because if i start to explain i'm gonna start rambing and no one wants to read that. Anyways I wanted to apologize since i haven't updated in over a month. I feel like a lazy piece of garbage because of it even though i was exptremely productive. After this month i can say - for the first time - i have a professional life because i got job!!! Well technically an apprenticeship for becoming a pre-school teacher for the next 3 years, but then i'm gonna have a job. It's always been my dream and now it's hapening y'all!!! I'm really fucking happy but since i'm the only one in my family who's home the whole day i have to do all the housework... (ironing a billion shirts - mostly my own - with over 95°F/35°C outside, is the last thing you wanna do).

The next chapter is almost ready though and should be ready in like a week, max. Hopefully before i go on vacation since i'm not sure if i'm gonna have wi-fi there or not. If there's no wi-fi the chapter will be up after i come back which would be in the beginning of August.

I'm really fucking sorry - again - for not uploading. I hope you understand. If you have any wishes or ideas you would like to see in the story or if you want certain topics covered, please feel free to put them in the comments. 

I love you all xx - Anne


	10. stones, people and stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> well nightmares are shit and there's nothing worse than the snap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, bitches!!!! I did it! I feel much better now that i can finally upload this chapter. I saw FFH two days ago and it was incredible but i will not spoiler anything for anyone but that mid-credit scene is far from anything we've seen before. Also i'm sorry if there are weird thought jumps in the story, that just kind of happens sometimes.
> 
> Love you all xx

_The darkness enveloped him as Peter tried to move forward. His legs wouldn't carry him though and he fell to the ground before he could even make a step._

_What happened? Why was he here? Why couldn't he walk?_

_Questions clouded Peter's mind hand in hand with pain all over his skin. It burned, pierced and rasped. When he realized the agony it overwhelmed him so hard, he lost whatever it was he ate last._

_“Ha, ha ,ha”, Peter could hear a dark, deep laughing. He looked around but couldn't identify the source of the sound. Everything was just pitch black._

_Peter wanted to scream for the pain to go away but he couldn't. It was as if someone took away his ability to speak. He didn't even register the silent tears running down his face. His vision was cloudy, his hearing fuzzy and it echoed from every direction._

_“You little insect”, the voice appeared again. Peter tossed his head around fanatically and this time he saw six tiny colorful lights._

_Green. Purple. Blue. Red. Orange. Yellow._

_“You thought you could beat me?”, the voice and the lights came closer._

_Peter felt the footsteps vibrating in his body. Every tremor rattled through his body like a punch only bringing more and more pain. Peter bit his tongue to get through the excruciating feeling until he had the irony taste of blood on his lips._

_He tried to talk again but couldn't get out more than a wheezing sound. The mocking laugh rang out again and Peter felt his stomach churn again but this time he had nothing left so he only dry heaved which was just way, way worse. As soon as the cramping in his stomach went through, the pain refocused on his skin and within a second his whole body was spilled with acid again._

_It took Peter's focus from the light and the intruder which he quickly realized wasn't good at all. Suddenly a large, large hand winded around his neck and squeezed. He felt metal piercing into the skin of his neck and registered the colors right under his eyes._

_“You got everyone killed already.”, the purple of Thanos' skin came into view as the titan lowered Peter from the ground and right in front of his face. Gasped for air his vision impaired more and more. His mouth was filled with a mix of acid, blood and spit and Peter started to gag from it._

_“And it was all your fault.”, the titan almost whispered in his deep, threatening voice. Peter wanted to protest because he would never, ever kill anyone. He would never let anyone die because he would gladly take their place instead of his._

_“And now.”, Thanos stared right into his eyes. They were piercing through Peter's soul. “The rest of the universe wants you dead!”, he declared with a yell that shattered through Peter's brain and let his ears bleed._

“NO!”, Peter screamed, sitting up straight from the bed. He couldn't hear or see anything for a split second and thought he was still trapped inside his head's fantasy when he felt someone grip his shoulder. He immediately jerked away.

“-ter!”, Peter turned toward the sound. “Peter? C'mon it was just a bad dream.”, his eyes were bleary and unfocused. He looked extremely exhausted and pale. Tony slowly took a second try on touching the boy. This time he stroke away a lock of Peter's hair from his sweaty forehead. 

It seemed to hammer the boy out of his haze. He felt Peter inhale sharp and his eyes snapped to the man's face. “Mr. Stark?”, his voice was timid and painfully unsteady. 

The boy's body shook violently when he carefully raised his hand and touched the man's face. Tony was confused as to why Peter did it but let him do whatever he needed to calm down.

“I'm here Pete.”, Tony said quietly and suddenly Peter threw his arms around the man's neck. He was taken aback for a second but hugged the boy back almost instantly. 

“I'm so-sorry, Mr. Stark. I'm s-so sor-ry.”, Peter apologized over and over.

“Hey, hey, hey, it's okay Petey, it's okay. We are all fine. You did nothing wrong. It was just a nightmare.”, Tony made circles on Peter's back. He was soaked in cold sweat and he had goosebumps over his arms.

Peter felt his heart rate coming down again and his labored breathing steadying while he let a few tears soak into Mr. Stark's shirt. He wasn't sure if his dream was a dream. It felt too real when Thanos strangled him and knowing he didn't actually kill Mr. Stark or anyone else from the team let his mind relax a little and his shoulder sag a bit too.

They sat in silence for a while and Peter felt comfort by listening to his mentor's steady breathing. Should he talk to Mr. Stark about his dream? But he didn't want to burden the man with his problems. But he wanted to talk about it. He always felt so much better and May always encouraged him to do so. Peter took a frustrated breath and released their hug.

Peter put his elbows on his knees and let his face rest in his hands. What was he doing? What was happening to him? He was hot and cold at the same time and couldn't decipher what was going on neither with his body nor with his mind. 

“Here.”, Tony put Peter's glass of water in his hands. “You need to stay hydrated.”, his gaze fell to the boy's sweaty sheets. 

During the 30 minutes the two slept, Peter detached himself from Tony before his nightmare started. Tony tried to get him out of his dreams faster but the boy just wouldn't snap out of it. The desperate _I didn't do it_ and _let me go_ still echoed in the man's ears and to see his boy this distraught pained him to no end. Knowing he couldn't do anything to prevent it from happening again was even worse. The only help Tony could give was talking and maybe distracting Peter from the dark thoughts from time to time. It was going to happen again and he already told Peter as much but that didn't mean he wanted it to happen. No one wanted that. No one needed that. And no one should ever have to experience it. Especially not someone as innocent and brave as Peter.

“Do you wanna tell me what happened?”, Mr. Stark asked Peter carefully.

“I-Maybe later? I have to shower first.”, he pulled on his wet shirt so it didn't cling to his chest and bandages anymore. The bandages were soaked too... maybe he could wash and dry them. 

“No, problem.”, Mr. Stark smiled. “Oh wait!”, he called Peter back when he was almost out of the door. He jogged after him. “I packed some of your stuff for you to wear.”, they went upstairs to Pepper and Tony's transitional bedroom. 

“You packed clothing for me?”, Peter was baffled.

“Well, technically Pepper packed it, I only chose the pieces.”, the man explained in his usual light tone. “But yeah, we did. Since half of your wardrobe is in your room in the compound, it wasn't all that difficult of a task.”, Mr. Stark's tone eased Peter's mind since it was more careless and less cautious. 

“Th-thank you.”, Peter stammered when they entered the guest room. It had double the size of Peter's bedroom at home (the one from Homecoming) but was still significantly smaller than what Mr. Stark was used too. Even the smallest room in the compound was still at least double the size of this guest room. There were two open suitcases on the queen size bed. It had navy blue sheets and no comforter which Peter couldn't find in Lina's room earlier either. Maybe that wasn't a thing here. He had to ask Lina later.

“You have to come here to actually pick the clothing, you know.”, Mr. Stark told Peter who still looked around taking in the pastel green walls. Oddly enough it kinda matched with the sheets.

“Hm?”, Peter looked at the waiting man who only raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at him. “Oh right, yeah, sorry.”, he felt his ears burning a little and he quickly picked a pair of sweatpants, one of the newer science pun shirts Mr. Stark got for him after he lost a few after patrol. This one said _'YOU MATTER unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light... ...THEN YOU ENERGY'_. To that a gray zip up sweatshirt. He smiled at the shirt when he read over it. The shirts were so stupid but they didn't fail to put a smile on some strangers' faces or his own when he had a bad day.

They went back downstairs and Peter disappeared into the bathroom. When he took off the bandages he inspected his bruises in the mirror. They were yellow and purple pinched already and he was sure tomorrow there wouldn't be anything visible at all. They also didn't hurt even after his probable jerky, radical movements in his sleep. His mind eased a little more. Peter knew he wouldn't have to burden May with them. What he didn't know was she already made that out on her own.

He piled up the wet clothing and took the bandages into the shower so he could wash them. Next to the shower was a heating powered towel dryer (I have no fucking idea how to call this thing otherwise. Just google these words and you know what I mean) on the wall were Peter hung his towel after he first showered last night. There he hung his towel again as well as the bandages.

x...x...x...x

“Five packs of cookies?”, Pepper eyed Lina questioning. 

“Ahm... yeah.”, Lina smirked.

“For Peter?”, she really just asked for confirmation because Pepper was 99% sure they were in fact for Peter. 

“Well I can't eat five of these packs. He gets three and I get two. We are gonna bring him more though. I wanna see his face when he tries the different candies.”, she has a mischievous smile on her face. “And then I can keep the rest.”, because candy makes every day a little better.

“Okay.”, Pepper chuckled. “Just remember we only have a certain amount of space.”, holding up the bag she was carrying. 

“No worries, we got enough. We still have to get to more shops.”, Lina sighed but perked up again. “Let's get to the bagels”, she had to get cream cheese for that too.

They left with Lina's backpack filled with mostly – and not surprisingly – candy. At the bakery Lina got bread and rolls with raisins in them for breakfast. Pepper explained how Peter liked the wrinkled grapes quiet a lot. Next was the drugstore for some shampoo, hairspray and other stuff including a special kind of chocolate bar you could only buy there but “are the best and they're lactose free which means I can actually eat them. Oh and a pack of lactase pills.”

The last stop was a farmer's shop. It belonged to a friend of Lina's and sold them honey, eggs and some meats made of animals from his bunch. 

“You have to order the meat you want before you can actually buy it. They only butcher the animals when every single piece of the animal gets order first, even stuff like the skin and the skull. It takes a while but you know it's the good stuff and nothing is being wasted. I don't even buy anything packaged anymore.”, Lina didn't like eating meat all that much anyways but once or twice in two weeks was okay. It did taste very good since the animals are outside as much as possible and well treated by the farmers out here. 

“That's very sustainable and a impressive way of handling it. Do all the farmers do that around here? Because it doesn't sound all that cost efficient to be honest.”, with all the food, vet costs and keeping the stable working with it's electricity and what not. That can't be cheap, Pepper thought.

Lina sighed. “Unfortunately, it's not. At the moment they are in balance but when they introduced the concept they wrote red numbers for quite a while. It was hard and they lived from day to day trying to keep themselves and their children over water. It's going pretty well now though and a lot of farmers around here see the appeal as do the costumers. They try to settle for the same concept.”, Lina explained the situation. With only average knowledge about farming for around here, she knew much more than Pepper or Tony or really anyone from a city would ever know except if they would've special interest in it. But that's extremely rare because nobody would take on the burden of opening a farm. It just wasn't profitable even if you work for big companies. But here it's different, because people are used to the farms, to the quality of their products and they are a part of their lives. They would never give that up even though some farms went bankrupt especially after The Snap.

“I always wanted to live outside of the city. Maybe not necessarily a farm because I didn't have time for it but in a village like this or even further outside.”, Pepper did love the idea and even as a child she dreamed of living in the woods. At that point it was in a castle but she was also 5. The core idea stayed the same though.

“Did you grew up outside the city? Why would you not wanna live there? It's so much more convenient than living cut off like I do. We've been grocery shopping for an hour by now because the distances are big. In the city this would've taken half the time. You could do so many other things. Don't get me wrong, I love living out here but it puts up a lot of burdens too.”, why would you not wanna live in the city if you could?

“Honestly I can't say a lot against it since, even when we're not upstate, Tony and I live pretty comfortable. The tower's soundproof which is great because it's New York City. We also have windows with black out technology which means all light from outside can be completely shut out. We can block out everything annoying about the city inside which is great since I'm inside a lot. But on the other hand I'm inside _a lot_.”, she emphasized on the words. “I can't really go outside without having paparazzi following me on every step. If I go outside it always has to be with some type of security because if you believe it or not people threaten me – and Tony even more – out in the open, on the street. But then there are also trivial things like commute and having to go everywhere by car even though I'd prefer walking.”, and she did miss it. She ran around a lot when she as still Tony's PA and even went to get some things by foot because it was faster but now that was definitely not an option any longer.

They were walking back to Lina's home in a slow comfortable pace. “They say New York is the city that never sleeps. And that is very true. It's always buzzing and alive. There's no quiet moment, no silence. It's hectic and stressful. Sure there's culture happening and – as you said – short ways to whatever you might need with a 24/7 access. But the constant accessibility does something to you. The stress is eating away on you and everyone thinks it's fine to call at 3am because 'it's New York'”, she mimicked the voice of a man who actually did call that early in the morning and to the question as of why he called this early she got this answer.

“You're also not surrounded by people all the time out here. The compound is far out of the city but there you have to share your space with all the other Avengers. I do love all of them but living with them... that is a whole different story.”, waking up and going to the kitchen and already being surrounded by at least three people before your first coffee took some time to getting used too and at some point even Tony couldn't handle the amount of people surrounding him on a daily basis any more and he bought the tower back so the two of them had their own private home. It's ridiculous actually since they moved out of the tower not even two years ago. 

Lina giggled at the prospect of random Avengers walking around in the same building. “What? Living together with assassins, super soldiers and strangely powered people is not as calm as it sounds like?”, it was a bad joke but it made both of them laugh.

“No but seriously. No one who we encountered today was any kind of impolite or disrespectful. It's such a different feeling here. I hate this word but Peter says it more often than not – the vibe is relaxed and friendly.”, Lina cringed at the word just as much as Pepper did. “It feels down to earth, you know. I mean you alone are a great example. You took Peter in without question and even let us stay as if it's a given.”, Lina interrupted her.

“Because it is. Come on, you can't tell me people in cities don't do that.”, that's ridiculous.

“Well, you can't really reach a person to begin with. In the middle of the city people live in nothing but skyscrapers. And the people who live there are... well they're usually rich assholes. Not all of them, of course but the overwhelming majority. The city also makes people selfish. Since you basically have everything around you they don't appreciate things less. There are a lot of citizens like you too, that's out of question, like Peter and May, but they become less and less. At least that's what it feels like for me. I grew up in this city and never had a lot and what I found out while working my way up, is that more money makes people less human. They just get colder and more narcissistic. The simpler the life, the better.”, Pepper ended her speech with a deep breath but was still a little out of breath.

It was silent again and they were only a few minutes away from Lina's home. “Then why not just move somewhere else? It's not like anyone would question it given what the Avengers achieved and people disappearing in the first place.”, Lina felt weirdly cold suddenly. She didn't really know why but they had everything and could do everything they wanted. Lina just couldn't understand it. But she was also a little jealous Peter was always praisefully talked about. 

Why it came over her in this moment, she didn't know since it's pretty far away from what Pepper and her were talking about and Peter was only mentioned secondarily. She knew it was because she never had anything like it and will probably never have. She was used to it though and thought was immune to this kind of display of affection – parent-child affection.

Were her friends okay? Or her parents? They – her parents – never called or texted. No words and Lina just assumed they were gone too. It surprised her how little she cared and broke out into tears over her unaffectetness (idk if this is a word and i'm pretty sure it's not but I hope you know what I mean). 

She did call her friends though and they called her. Not all of them took the call unfortunately. Some were gone and some had to move since no child was allowed to live alone. No social service ever came to her door and she was more than grateful for it. Lina would've needed to move into the foster system since she didn't have any relatives. Right in this moment it was one of the first times she thought about her friends and calling them given her circumstances. They were probably busy too. Her thoughts kept running freely. Lisa got her mom back. Tim his baby brother and grandma. Leonie could finally come back since both of her dads were back too. Maybe Phillip's mom was pregnant again. It was a horror story but since Phillip disappeared too, he didn't know what was happening to his mother.

“-re you okay?”, Pepper ripped her out of her thoughts. Lina didn't realize she stopped walking and started staring into nothingness.

Lina saw the concerned gaze flickering over the woman's face and a hand on her shoulder. She quickly shook her head. “Ich... ja, yes... I'm – I'm good.”, she swallowed. “Sorry, I just spaced out a little.”, the girl waved it off, hoping Pepper didn't realize how distraught her mind was at the moment.

“Something you wanna talk about?”, Pepper was careful. She knew not every one wanted to talk about their traumas. But to know how Lina reacted she had to ask. The girl appears more guarded than Peter but not as guarded as Tony after 2012 and his excessive building of suits.

Lina sighed. “My friend – Phillip – is hopefully back, though his mother is in terrible shape. She was 7 months pregnant and the baby disappeared together with Phillip. Right now she's in the psych wing after she tried to kill herself.”, her voice got small and Pepper swallowed hard. She hasn't heard that story before and it held Pepper's heart in an iron grip. “She's severely depressed, is suicidal and suffers from PTSD.”, Lina started to walk again looking at the ground.

“I can't even imagine what it must feel like.”, the depressive state returned.

They walk back to the house in silence which wasn't all that long since they were only minutes away. Hoping for better atmosphere there they entered. It was silent except for the sound of something running on the TV in the living room.

“Oh no, they're watching _Moana_.”, Pepper recognized sadly. Lina looked confused. “Peter only watches it when he feels bad, really bad.”, she only hoped he wasn't too hurt. Pepper knew Peter preferred talking in contrast to Tony which was refreshing but it still takes him a while to actually start talking about what's happening inside rather than just occurrences like nightmares.

It didn't surprise her all that much Peter felt _Moana_ -bad with everything that happened but it came unexpectedly early. Usually he was chipper for a bit longer. Pepper felt Lina taking the bags from her. The girl gave her an encouraging smile and walked into the kitchen. 

The couch was occupied with Peter leaning against Tony and Tony had one arm draped around his waist to keep him steady. He probably didn't even realize he was doing it but it was very sweet to look at. Tony looked up and gave them a tight smile but Peter's gaze was fixed on the screen. Lina gave Pepper a nod to signal her she could go be with them while she unpacked all her stuff.

In response she got a thankful smile. There wasn't really anything Lina could do so she quickly put all the groceries away and left for her room. She fell into a concerned mood. The empty look she saw in Peter's eyes looked alarming. On the other hand she didn't know the boy and only met him a few hours ago. Maybe that was just what he looked like while coping. She didn't know so she opted for leaving it for now. It seems like Pepper and Tony knew what to do in this situation which eased her worry a little. Lina put on _Wynonna Earp_ and started to finally text her friends.

Downstairs Peter still looked sullen and didn't move until the movie was over, just once he reached out and took one of Pepper's hands in his when she came to sit with them. After the film Peter stood up and went to the kitchen to get something to drink. He felt Pepper's and Tony's gazes on his back. He wanted to cry, he didn't really know why exactly but everything he felt was just very overwhelming for him right now since it was more than he ever felt before.

He sat down in front of the two adults who constantly acted more like his parents than what they actually are. What were they though...? Peter couldn't really answer this question for himself right now but it was something he thought about more and more since he began to come to the compound regularly after what happened with the vulture. Peter knew it would ease the pressure in his chest if he would talk about whatever was going on right now with the nightmares but he wasn't ready. Especially not since he didn't know what was happening himself. He just wasn't ready and that's what he tells Tony and Pepper who, he knew, were waiting for him to say something. 

“I'm not ready.”, he murmured with slumped shoulders with his back to them. He didn't want to see the disappointment in their faces.

There was never disappointment in their faces and deep down Peter knew that. But right now he didn't feel as if he deserved their attention. For heaven's sake, Mr. Stark just came back from space a day ago and he looks absolutely terrible. Why would he be here? Peter just took up time the man needed to get himself into shape again. Peter wanted to be alone but this wasn't his house and technically he didn't even sleep in a room here. This comfy couch was crowded by the two people he couldn't even look at right now that's how guilty he felt.

He couldn't be here right now, Peter decided and just left the house, fetching the jacket he was wearing earlier. Peter could hear voices saying something but it was all suppressed by a white noise threatening to let his head explode. His face felt hot and the weather let his breath fog when he took some heavy breaths. Not knowing his way around but not really caring either, Peter started to just walk. His chest tightened but he kept on walking. Breathing got harder but he kept on walking. He felt his legs wobble but he just kept on walking. Suddenly he felt freezingly cold, his extremities got heavy, his joints hurt and he felt so unbelievably tired that he had to sit down. The last thing he remembered was an aching lung and then everything turned black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger! 
> 
> I hate them but it made a nice ending, that's also why the chapter is a little shorter than usual. 
> 
> I'm catsitting for a friend right now and her cat's are fluffy as hell and i love them so much!!! Oh my god, i love cats more than anything in the world!!
> 
> Also no hate against people from the city, it's just what i experienced and what others told me about. I'm from a town because technically we're not enough people to legally call it a city. I'm closer to the country part of Germany than the city part so i have more experience in that region


	11. UPDATE (i'm so sorry, guys but my laptop broke)

Hey peeps,

so my garbage laptop broke for the second time now. The first time was like 10 days or 2 weeks ago or whatever, i don't really remember. It sparked and i got a specialist to look at it. He repaired it but pretty much all my work was gone... i had to restart the chapter and was almost ready when i went to a family meeting 4 days ago. I've been back since yesterday night and i wanted to finalize everything today when the laptop froze and broke down again. It got hot and there was just a lot of code or something on the screen and i went to a specialist again. He's gonna give me a call tomorrow to get an update on the situation but as of now there's probably not gonna be another chapter in the closer future if this keeps going on. Maybe i'll write on my phone but the chapter on my laptop is so great and i hope it's not gonna be gone again. I'm really sorry guys. I wish i could do something but as of right now we all just have to wait a little longer.

I love you all and thanks for sticking around with my little story and my technical issues. 

Anne xx


	12. habits, candy and a call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> well there's not all that much to say but they look for Peter and find something potentially harmful to him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My laptop's back bitches! I went to pride in berlin, started the last season of OITNB. I always dread watching last seasons of my fav shows and it always breaks my heart so it takes even more time than usually. I went through the third part of Money Heist and i can't wait for the fourth part! It's a holy show in germany. Idk why but it's like a whole thing or whatever.
> 
> I finished the chapter and i have to say I'm not overly happy with it. First i really thought i was and now i'm not... idk, it's weird. Maybe it's the heat that is messing with my head. It's a little after midnight and i just edited everything. I'm sorry that it's a little short and that the ending might seem weird but you'll have more clarity in the next chapter. I promise. 
> 
> Hope y'all are doing well and have fun with the chapter! Love you xx

“Pete wait -”, Tony got up when Peter left through the door.

“No, don't.”, Pepper held him back. “You know he needs time. If you pressure him he will react like you and just close off more.”, she was right and Tony knew it. He knew Peter needed space right now. 

“Yeah, you're right. God, that _is_ exactly my behavior. That could be a problem.”, he didn't want the boy to copy any of his coping mechanisms since they were – well let's say, not the ideal ones.

Pepper sighed. “It's okay. Nothing May or we can't handle.”, she promised him when the door opened.

“Hi, sorry, but I heard the door smash. Is everything alright?”, Lina asked.

“Peter just went out for some air.”, Tony assured her but even he could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

“I hope he took a jacket because it's pretty cold. The weather forecast dude said the temperatures were gonna drop around this time.”, and since the sky had drawn (sorry if I used this inaccurately, I hope you know what I mean) by now, the sun couldn't even warm up anything anymore.

“The cold!”, Tony exclaimed after a brief silence and sprung up. “We have to find him!”, already walking to the door without any further explanation.

“Tony, what do you mean?”, Pepper asked, looking just as confused as Lina.

“He's part spider now! What if he falls into hibernation? He can't stay warm if it's cold around him. He will fall asleep or maybe die. I have no clue how hibernation effects his body.”, he ranted while the other two quickly realized how serious the situation was.

They put on their coats and shoes and Lina quickly grabbed her phone and keys and they left the house. “He can't be further than down the street. He only left a few minutes ago.”, Pepper said. “Should we take the car?”, she offered. 

“He wouldn't ran away all that far because he doesn't know the neighborhood.”, Tony explained. “But what if he panics? What if he's unconscious already? We won't be able to transport him alone. I'll drive.”, he was about to take the keys from his fiance when Lina stopped him.

“No! You're panicking and are in no condition to drive. You drive.”, she shoved the keys into Pepper's hands who looked more collected than her partner. Still not 100% but probably better on the clearer head part. “We'll look out for Peter. I think he took the green jacket he wore this morning.”, Lina didn't see it on the hanger where Peter left it some hours ago.

The two didn't even argue with it and got in the car. “Go to the right. The street ends in a field way and later a warehouse. He would be easy to see and if he's not there we can go the other way closer to the center of the town.”, Lina explained while Pepper, relatively fast, took them down the street. 

Tony looked out on the left, Lina on the right side of the road. But they saw nothing but houses either surrounded by garden and grass or garages and carports. That went on until the end of the street for what felt like 5 never ending minutes. All worst case scenarios went through all of their heads.

But then, “There!”, Pepper exclaimed and pointed at a figure leaning against a ruined building that stood in the middle of the field right behind the village.

“Oh my god, you're right. He even wears the jacket!”, Tony realized and Pepper took off right through the field. The uneven ground made the car rumble but when they actually made it to the house, Pepper didn't even park before Tony sprung out.

“Peter!”, he yelled and kneeled down next to the boy. Peter's skin was ashen and so cold to the touch that Tony flinched. He instantly checked for a pulse on the neck. “I can't feel a pulse!”. _Nononononono, you can't die now Petey. You can't die!_

Tony's hands were shaking violently when the other two came. Lina just shoved him out of the way and Pepper held him back to calm him down. The girl got to work and transferred Peter in a laying position rather than him slumped against the wall. She checked the pulse on his neck, mimicking Tony's movements and realized the man was right. No pulse. Nothing. _Scheiße!_ (Shit!) Cursing under her breath she took his right wrist and looked for a pulse by putting the tips of her middle finger and pointer right on the left side next to the two sinews that go right through the underarm. 

“Yes!”, she exclaimed with a big smile and turned to Tony who was held by Pepper. _Pepper is taller than him? Man, this dude is tiny_ , she shook her head, not the right time for her weird observations. “I found a pulse.”, Lina told them and she saw both of the adult's shoulders sack in relief. _Oh thank god._

She turned back to Peter and freed her watch from under her jacket. _30 Sekunden uuuuuund los_. (30 seconds aaaaaand go.), she started counting the beats. There was a beat every 3 seconds. Slow, very slow, too slow. Peter's was fit and young, his heart should beat more than once in a second. He was cyanotic. Though Lina wasn't sure if it was because of the cold or the low pulse. _Komm schon Peter, du kannst mich nicht so hängen lassen. Ich will deine Tante oder Pepper oder Tony nicht enttäuschen und ehrlichgesagt auch nicht für Spider-Mans Tod verantwortlich sein_. (Come on Peter you can't skip out on me like that. I don't wanna disappoint your aunt or Pepper or Tony and honestly, I really don't wanna be responsible for the death of Spider-Man.)

Next she checked his breathing. His mouth didn't hang slack which was a good sign because it meant his muscles still worked which meant his brain got enough oxygen. First she opened his mouth than she hold his nostrils closed with one hand and held her ear over his mouth. Slow, flat breaths was what she felt against her skin. “Very good Peter.”, she told him encouraging. It wasn't great on any level but since she knew it was possible for him to fall into hibernation, it seemed to be exactly what happened.

She saw Tony and Pepper anxiously waiting on the byline. “Come here, I need your coats.”, then she took off her own coat. Both didn't even hesitate but Pepper looked slightly confused whereas Tony started talking.

“So it is hibernation? Or do we have to go to the hospital?”, the three huddled the boy in.

“I think it actually is hibernation. We have to get him in the car.”, that didn't need to be said twice. Tony took a hold of the boy and carried him bridal style. Lina kept explaining. “You see, his pulse is extremely slow only 20 beats per minute.”, Pepper gasped at that. _God, that boy cannot die this young._ “I know, I know. That should be fatal especially with only the shallow breaths he's taking. But he gets enough oxygen to his brain to be intact because his jaw didn't go slack when he was sitting. That should not be possible if he was just a human. The cold let him cool out though just like you explained.”, looking at Tony at the last sentence. 

Peter was placed in the backseat with his head in Tony's lap. Lina sat in the passenger seat next to Pepper and when they started driving she asked something. “So, right now he's just sleeping?”, she noted because he wasn't unconscious or in a coma as far as she understood Lina's explanation.

“Basically yes. He's sleeping _and_ is cold. The heat thing shouldn't be a problem at home but maybe he should wear thermal underwear and stuff made out of cord and fleece so he doesn't freeze every time he leaves the house.”, Lina explained to her while they entered the property with the car again.

When they got him inside his face was already less pale. He was still cold though, Lina noted when she touched his forehead to check on him. “Okay, fastest way to heat someone up...?”, she asked into the room to no one in particular. 

“Bath!”, Pepper suggested.

“Yes! Okay follow me.”, they went to the bathroom with Peter and Lina let in the water together with something green syrup-y looking stuff out of a bottle that said _Badusan_. “It makes bubbles and lets you smell like the woods.”, she shrugged at Tony's mildly irritated gaze. “It's a very calming smell and checked by dermatologists so it's safe.”, she elaborated and got up from the floor. “Someone has to stay here with him.”, Tony decided for it. “Okay, we'll bring clothes and prepare anything that could possibly keep him warm.”

“Sounds good.”, Tony told them and slowly untangled Peter from the coats and stripped him from his clothing except for his underwear because privacy is very much a thing. Then he got one of the rolled up, colorful towels from the cabinet and put it behind Peter's neck when Tony placed him in the tub. The water was let in until it covered Peter's shoulders. The bubbles were everywhere and the woody smell _was_ actually very calming. 

“We packed all kinds of clothes for Peter. I'm gonna go upstairs and get the warmest things.”, Pepper told Lina pointing at the staircase.

“That is very good because I don't think I have enough stuff for Peter's size. He's too tall.”, Lina's head hurt and she pinched the bridge of her nose. 

“Hey, are you okay?”, Pepper ask with genuine concern. 

“I'm okay.”, she reassured her. “It's just all very overwhelming and sometimes I get a headache from it. Especially when functioning on only two hours of sleep.”, she chuckled dryly but that didn't convince the woman in front of her even in the slightest. She just crossed her arms and put on a cut-the-bs-mom-face Lina saw on Phillip's mom several times in her life. “Honestly, I'm fine. I don't even have to take a pill. When Peter's warmed up again, I'm gonna take a break. I promise.”, Lina swore with pleading eyes.

“Fine.”, she uncrossed her arms with a softer expression and stepped closer to Lina. “But tell me if it's getting worse, okay.”, she put a hand on the girl's shoulder.

Lina was stunned by the touch for a second and stiffened but relaxed quickly and gave Pepper a warm smile. “I will. Thanks.”, she wasn't really sure why she thanked her though.

“I'm gonna get the clothes.”, Pepper told her, squeezed her shoulder and disappeared upstairs.

Lina wandered into the kitchen to heat up some water for tea. Then she got a big fleece blanket from the laundry room because after 2 days it was finally dry. Cherry did have to puke on it, didn't she. “Perfektes Timing.” (perfect timing [but I think you almost got that one yourself ;p ]), she whispered to herself and put the blanket on the couch. Cherry was sleeping on it though so she was careful not to bury her kitty under the garment. When the blanket was on the couch though the cat woke up. She miewed at Lina and bumbed her head against the girl. “Aw, I know baby but I can't cuddle with you right now.”, Lina scratched Cherry behind her ears. She purred and rubber her head against Lina's hand. She was tired and the girl could tell. “I have an idea.”, she took the cat in her arms and place her over her left shoulder and also holding her in place with the same hand. The position seemed rather uncomfortable for Cherry to be in but for whatever reason it was her favorite and she fell asleep basically right away. 

Gathering 3 different cherry pit pillows with a sleeping cat over your shoulder is much harder than Lina thought. But she made it and burried them under the fleece blanket to keep them warm. 

There while in the bathroom Tony animatedly talked about new ideas for Peter's next suit since the old one was a total loss.

Peter very slowly came to his senses. _Cozy_ , was the first thought that came to mind. He was surrounded by heat. Peter wasn't able to really pinpoint what it was what kept him warm but it was greaaaaat. What surprised him too was the total lack of panic and anxiety that he felt the last time he could consciously capture thoughts. Then a smell caught his nose. “Pine.”, he mumbled not even realizing it. Some background noise, the boy didn't even notice was there, suddenly stopped and it made Peter slowly open his eyes. _Bright..._

“Welcome back.”, Tony smiled at the boy. 

_Mr. Stark_ , Peter looked tired and he had to blink several times to get used to the already dimmed lighting. His eyes felt heavy and he wanted nothing but fall asleep again and drift off into a world of blissful slumber. In that moment he didn't think of the nightmares that might plague him because he was just way too tired. Instead concentrating on Mr. Stark though, the boy saw exhaustion oozing out of the man. They both probably looked pretty similar right now. 

When Peter moved his hand he realized he was laying in water and it was the bubbles in front of him that gave the wooden smell. _What is happening?_ Then his eyes almost bulged out of his head and he fanatically felt around his thighs to find out if he was nude because _Ahhhhhhhhh!!!_

“You have shorts on.”, Mr. Stark calmed him. “There are some things that are just too private and would also be very creepy.”, he explained.

Peter relaxed and huffed out a breath. “Why a bath though and why am I so tired?”, confused he sat up and went through the bubbles with his hands.

“We had to warm you up. Fast.”, the man took a breath and looked at a confused Peter. “It appears that you go into hibernation over the winter. You fell asleep outside and suddenly lost all temperature.”, Peter nodded along with the explanation.

“So I actually can't regulate temperatures?”, he was crushed. 

“I'm sorry, kid.”, Tony and Peter both knew it wasn't his fault but it still sucked.

“It's fine. Last year, the year I got bitten, I did feel tired and got cold way easier in winter than I ever did before. It wasn't as bad as it is now though. I never fell asleep or passed out. I just thought it was my body adjusting to the bite.”, the boy had the saddest eyes.

“Hey, no problem Peter. We're clever and we're going to find or make something so that you won't freeze just because the weather is not in your favor. Don't worry.”, since they had to make a new suit anyways Tony made a mental note to put in the permanent heater again and to make the fabric permeable and impermeable at the same time. So Peter wouldn't loose heat but still get fresh air. His mind went a mile a minute with ideas on how he could improve the boy's suit.

Then it knocked and the door opened quietly until it revealed Pepper with a stack of clothes in her arms. “Oh hey Peter. You look much better. I just came to bring you something to wear.”, she stage-whispered, handed Mr. Stark the pile, gave Peter a warm smile and left again.

“I really don't wanna get out of the water. It's so warm and cozy.”, Peter complains while yawning. 

“Aw, come on, Pepper got you a fleece jacket and two pairs of fluffy socks.”, along with sweats and a shirt.

“I didn't remember owning either of those things.”, did hibernation include memory loss?

“It all does look a tad smaller than your average so I'm guessing they're Lina's.”, they were longer socks so they could actually fit Peter.

“I have to thank her for everything she did for me.”, the boy muttered as if telling it himself so he wouldn't forget it.

“You'll figure something out, don't worry.”, then Mr. Stark put the clothes on the floor, got up and handed Peter his towel. “You have to get out of the water or you're gonna look like a raisin.”, then he left the bathroom for Peter to change.

Peter let the water drain and wrapped himself in the fluffy towel. What was he supposed to do with the situation? How was he supposed to explain his condition when teachers or other students notice? Oh god, what was May gonna say.... Peter didn't want her to worry about him more than she already did. She didn't deserve that. The last years were already stressful enough for her but now with her constant worry that something could happen to Peter, it just took a toll on his aunt. As long as Peter was on patrol, she usually didn't sleep. She just couldn't because she was too scared something could happen to him. At first Peter didn't know about it but when she began to be extremely tired and more and more exhausted, he confronted her about her condition. Peter was so scared May might be seriously sick. That she got some terminal illness she wanted to keep a secret. The relief he felt when May told him she was okay, was indescribable. He was so scared to lose another parent that only the thought of May being sick, made his eyes water.

In the beginning she refused to tell Peter the real reason she was feeling bad, scared that he might give up patrolling and helping people just because she couldn't handle it. But Peter stayed tenacious and kept digging until May finally told him the truth. The boy felt terrible when he realized he was responsible for May's condition. He instantly started talking about not being Spider-Man anymore even though he loved it the most in this world. Almost. Because _the only thing_ he loved more than being Spider-Man was her, his Aunt May. But she told him, “No. You are gonna keep helping people and saving lives. You prevented so many felonies and the crime rate went down severely since you started your work. We have so much less people coming to the hospital because of gunshot wounds, or being hurt after robberies and hate crimes. I'm really, really proud of you because you make Queens a safer and better place. Please don't stop patrolling. I'm going to find a way of dealing with my insecurities. It's gonna be just fine.”, her smile was proud and genuine and Peter thought it was almost too good to be true. How could he let her suffer though?

He hugged her for a long, long time after that and both felt the tears of the other on their shoulders. Peter pulled away though and looked her in the eyes, “I don't think I can go on patrol knowing you worry so much. It makes me feel selfish and as if I don't care about your feelings which isn't true.”, May opened her mouth to argue but he held up a hand. “No May, listen. Maybe you could tell me what you are scared of and I could explain how the suit and my abilities help or even prevent these scenarios. Do you – do you think that could maybe... em... help you?”, he hoped his suggestion wasn't stupid and gave May a nervous smile. In response his aunt just hugged him again with an agreeing smile. 

So Peter told May all about his spidey-senses, or Peter Tingle as she likes to call it... he didn't but as long as she felt comfortable with the matter Peter was fine with it. He told her about his fast heeling and how reliable the suit was and how much more resilient he got. 

Not having to sleep as much as others is great but the amount of calories he needed instead was enormous. Most of May's worries disappeared after their talk but they never went away altogether. He was not indestructible after all. But she could finally sleep again and was more happy. She even asked about his patrols and if anything interesting happened. When something bigger did happen, Peter tried to tell May before she had to hear it from the news because it usually only brought him in stern looks and what-were-you-thinking-mister speeches. Both which weren't particularly enjoyable for him or May. 

Even dressed in these warm clothes, Peter felt cold. And tired. Leaving the towel on the heater again, he stepped out of the bathroom and went back to the living room. Lina was on her laptop typing away, Tony and Pepper were talking with each other and Pepper had Cherry on her lap constantly massaging the cat on her head and neck. Peter could hear the purring from the door. The girl looked up first. “Got your stuff.”, she smirked and glancing at the dining table in the kitchen which was full with candy.

“What?!”, suddenly the tiredness was overpowered by excitement. “That is a crazy amount of candy. Did you buy all this just for me?”, because this was a seriously ridiculous amount of candy. 

Lina laughed. “Well, you can try everything then pick your favorites and you can take those because I can't eat that much candy alone but also like all of them and wanna keep some of it too. Though I'll send you a package with other sorts of candy.”, Peter was beaming.

“Awesome!”, he looked through all of the stuff very intrigued. Some things he knew or understood from the pictures on the packages. Other stuff he just couldn't even guess what it's supposed to be. There was an overwhelming amount of all things _kinder_ because according to Pepper that's something you don't really find in the US. That is also the first thing Peter gets in his hand. “Kinder surprise.”, he held the chocolate egg in his hand as if it was magic. He never thought he'd eat one in his life since they are not allowed in America. 

“They are pretty amazing. I would also recommend _Bueno_ , the _Riegel_ and _kinder County_.”, Lina pointed at three other packages. Otherwise, “I know you have _Haribo_ but with corn syrup in them which makes them actually taste different. I got them as frogs and a different gummy brand which I honestly think is better than the OG _Haribo_.”, there were other snack looking things on the table too but “Pepper told me to not get more than 10 different things which actually makes for a better surprise when you get the package.”, Lina admitted.

“I'm already more excited about the package than anything else. And why do these look like apples and peaches at the same time?”, he was holding a pack of _Lachgummis_. 

Lina just chuckled. “It's just apples actually but try them.”, so he opened the package.

Peter held one in his hand examining it and turning it around. Then he just popped it in his mouth. He chewed and his face changed from surprised to happy. “I did not think they'd be sour. But they are so good.”, he looked like he was considering eating another one but instead took a new candy. The _Haribos_ this time. “Sometimes you can buy them but even that is pretty rare. Wow, I think when I try all of this stuff I'm probably going to walk on the ceiling.”, because when he gets candy his body, his brain reacts as if he was 5 years old again.

“Actually I think the extra energy will help keeping you warm.”, Tony suggested from the couch. 

“Lets hope so.”, Pepper muttered. The last time Peter was on sugar she came back from work and into the living room with the boy actually hanging from the ceiling. It scared her shitless when Peter suddenly came down without any sound. Then Peter had to swear to her to never do that ever again.

Tony laughed at his fiance who promptly shut him down by lightly punching him in the shoulder. “Should I remind you of your first ceiling moment with him?”, she asked which shut him up rather quickly. It was pretty much the same for Tony as it was for Pepper except that he screamed together the whole compound and Peter didn't even realized what was happening when a screaming Tony woke him since it was the middle of the night and he fell asleep while “watching Star Wars from a different angle.”

“Hey, it was three in the morning and the full moon illuminated him as if he was some shapeless alien monster thingy.”, the man replied defensively. Because for a hot second he did believe there was another alien invasion he had to safe the world from. Pepper kissed him on the cheek and ran her hand through his hair affectionate because she knew where his mind was wandering and didn't want him to get upset.

Peter had a bright smile on his face. “You guys are so cute.”, he blurted out which made Lina laugh and Tony and Pepper blush. Peter seemed to be the only one not realizing he kind of embarrassed his... friends? Almost-parents? Colleges? The girl wasn't really sure what their relationship status was just that there was definitely one there.

“I think your energy idea worked just fine.”, Lina said looking at Tony. The boy didn't seem cold anymore at all. In fact, his cheeks were tinted pink from the heat. Also Lina found Peter's whole behavior very amusing right now. How would he be if he was drunk or maybe even stoned? Lina herself didn't drink alcohol and she didn't like weed all that much either because it made her paranoid. That usually left her as the responsible friend having to look after every one else. When her friends were drunk they could get annoying at a certain amount but stoned, even though neither happened frequently, they were an absolute blast. They got a lot more talkative and hungry though – not a surprise since that happens to about every smoker ever – Peter being even more jittery than now? He'd probably run the walls up and down. Would the drugs even do anything to his system? He has a crass metabolism so the substances might as well do nothing to him at all. _Why did these thoughts suddenly attack my brain?_ , Lina asked herself and shook her head to ban the thoughts from her mind for the moment and maybe come back to them later... or never.

“Oh yeah, I'm not even cold anymore. Thank you, Mr. Stark.”, Peter quickly scrambled his way over to his mentor and hugged him. 

“Anything for you kid. But Lina got you the candy Peter, you should thank her too.”, oh no, Lina wasn't at all pro-bodycontact. 

But it was too late and the boy had his arms slung around the girl's neck already. “Thanks Lina, I really appreciate it.”, she did hug him back. It was nice to be appreciated. Lina smiled happily. 

“No problem. I'm happy your not on the edge of hypothermia anymore.”, she told him sincerely.

“Me too.”, it was quiet for a beat after Peter's comment before both teenagers broke out into laughter. Both didn't really know why but it was happening. 

Then the landline ringed. For all three Americans a landline seemed out of century from the beginning on, which was a weird concept for Lina because why would landline be such an outdated thing? No one has their phone aloud. That's too noisy and would get annoying. So when someone wants to talk to you, urgently or not, just use landline. It's also free to basically everyone's DSL-contract. Lina talks with her friends for hours without loosing battery on her phone. Maybe it's a German thing? _Whatever, Americans are a weird species_ , Lina concluded.

She takes the ringing device, checks the caller ID and presses the green receiver button. “Bühler?”, she answers and frowns at the reply she's given.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.... I wanted to write something here but i kind of totally forgot what it was.... wel couldn't have been important than :D Peace out peeps! Next time you'll hear from me I'm gonna be at school again. I'm actually excited to be able to do more than just watching Netflix
> 
> Edit: I remembered! I hope my explanation with hibernation made sense. Also i have no clue about american candy and i used my knowledge, on the candy situation, off of yt and blog posts

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaaaaaaand??? What do you say? Yea or Meh? Critique and opinions in the comments please.
> 
> Hope you have a great day!!!! You are valid and loved, don't forget that!!!! xx


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